$° # S > « ° \v 






^• 7 V) 



v^ 






/"\ V 






V 



" 9 , T ^ tf> * a N o 

^ ; Jlilr ^ : " 













"oV 



A 








.,* 



£**, 




"U o« 



.* 



* A- 



*, *♦ 







a** 










. * 















4+ 

& % i • * ^ o « a *V 

/\ -III- •/% 






UV >A ttwJfo. t~£U.. ittVw., 

FIRST GOSPEL, 



THE GOSPEL ACCOEDING TO MAEK : 

TRANSLATED AND ARRANGED, 

WITH 

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE BOOK, ITS LITE 
OF JESUS, AND HIS RELIGION, 



BT 

LEICESTER AMBROSE SA\YYER, 

TRANSLATOR OF THE SCRIPTURES. 









BOSTON: 


WALKER, 


wise j^-ym cojcpaott, 


34c 


i Washington Street. 




1864. 



9%^ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 

LEICESTER AMBROSE SAWYER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



21 XI i' 






STEREOTYPED AT THE 

Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
No. 4 Spring Lane. 



CONTENTS. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

Page. 

Chapter I. John baptizes and preaches. Jesus is baptized, 
acknowledged from heaven, and driven into the wilder- 
ness, where he is tried by the adversary 40 days, ... 7 

Chapter II. Jesus comes to Galilee, preaches, calls four fish- 
ermen, first teaches at Capernaum, and cures a demoniac, 
Peter's mother-in-law, and a leper, * . . 8 

Chapter III. Jesus a second time at Capernaum, cures a 
leper, forgives and cures a paralytic, calls Levi, eats with 
publicans, neglects fasts, allows picking grain, and cures 
a withered hand on the Sabbath, . . 10 

Chapter IV. Jesus is followed by multitudes, appoints 12 
apostles, repels the charge of having Beelzeboul for an 
assistant, and claims all who do the will of God for re- 
lations, 12 

Chapter V. Jesus teaches in parables by the lake, concern- 
ing soils, lights, measures, sowers and reapers, and mus- 
tard seed, and stills a tempest, 14 

Chapter VI. Jesus visits the Gerasenes, cures a demoniac, a 
hemorrhage of 12 years, restores the daughter of Jairus 

to life, and visits Nazareth, 17 

(3) 



4 CONTENTS. 

Chapter VII. Jesus travels and employs the 12 apostles as 
assistants, is thought by Herod to be John the Baptist ; 
Herod's murder of John ; report of the 12 apostles ; Jesus 
feeds 5000 ; visits Bethsaida walking on the lake ; visits 
Gennesaret, and cures many, 20 

Chapter VIII. Jesus disparages Jewish baptisms and tra- 
ditions, 23 

Chapter IX. Jesus visits Tyre, cures a demoniac daughter of 
a Gentile woman, goes through Sidon to Decapolis, cures 
a deaf stammerer, and feeds 4000, 24 

Chapter X. Jesus visits Dalmanutha, refuses to give a sign, 

visits Bethsaida, and cures a blind man, 26 

Chapter XL Jesus visits Csesarea Philippi, asks his disciples 
who men say he is, declares the danger of his service, 
predicts his second coming, is transfigured, and cures an 
epileptic demoniac, .27 

Chapter XII. Jesus returns to Capernaum, forbids illiberality, 

and warns us to guard against occasions of sin, ... 30 

Chapter XIII. Jesus goes to Judaea, on the east side of the 
Jordan, journeying to Jerusalem; his doctrine concerning 
infants, marriage, and riches ; prediction of his death and 
cure of blind Bartimeeus, 31 

Chapter XIV. Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph, visits the 
temple, curses a fig tree, purifies the temple, inculcates 
faith in God, and refuses to show his authority, ... 35 

Chapter XV. Jesus relates the parable of the wicked hus- 
bandmen, gives his opinion concerning tribute, the re- 
surrection, the principal commandment, the son of David, 
the Jewish lawyers, and the widow's mite, 37 I 

Chapter XVI. Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, 

and his second coming, 40 1 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter XVII. Scheme to take Jesus ; he is anointed at 
Bethany, and Judas proposes to betray him ; he partakes 
of the passover and last supper, and predicts the treach- 
ery of Judas and denial of Peter, 42 

Chapter XVIII. Jesus in Gethsemane ; his agony, prayer, 

betrayal, apprehension, and trial before the Sanhedrim, 44 

Chapter XIX. Jesus examined and condemned by Pilate, 

mocked, scourged, and crucified, all on Friday morning, 47 

Chapter XX. Jesus honorably buried Friday evening, and 

his resurrection announced Sunday morning at the tomb ; 49 



CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

Chapter I. The four Gospels ; priority of that according to 

Mark, and the order of the whole, 51 

Chapter II. According to Mark signifies agreement, not 
authorship ; how the book is according to Mark ; its 
agreement with Peter and disagreement with Paul ; title 
of Saint to be abandoned, 61 

Chapter III. Relations of the title and sub-title of the book ; 

evangelion, evangelize, and evangelist, 78 

Chapter IV. Language, country, age, and character of the 

first Gospel, 85 

Chapter V. Poetic and fictitious elements in the first Gos- 
pel, 99 

Chapter VI. Country, parentage, and trade of Jesus, and his 

temporary residence in Egypt, 108 

Chapter VII. Name and titles of Jesus and his earliest fol- 
lowers, ..*...... 114 

Chapter VIIL Greek language of Jesus, its character and 
1* 



6 CONTENTS. 

uses ; Greek names of the apostles ; Peter not the same 

as Cephas ; mistake of John 1 : 43 ; death of Jesus, . .118 
Chapter IX. Jesus compared with Aristotle and other great 

discoverers and reformers, 127 

Chapter X. Religion of Jesus as understood by Eusebius, 

314-342 A. D., and the church in his times, .... 130 
Chapter XI. Celibacy of Jesus and his law of marriage and 

monachism, . . • 137 

Chapter XII. John the Baptist and Jesus as reported by 

Josephus, 139 

Chapter XIII. Personal appearance of Jesus, 143 

Chapter XIV. Morality of Jesus, 146 

Chapter XV. Theology of Jesus, . . 155 

Chapter XVI. Appearances and teachings of Jesus after his 

death, Mark 16 : 8-20, 166 

Chapter XVII. Church of Jesus, 169 

NOTE TO THE READER 174 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK: 

BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST 
SON OF GOD. 

CHAPTER I. 1: 1-13. 

John baptizes and preaches. Jesus is baptized, acknowledged from 
heaven, and driven into the wilderness, where he is tried by the 
adversary 40 days. 

1. 2 As it is written by Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I 
send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare 
your way ; 3 a voice of one crying in the wilderness, Pre- 
pare the way of Kurios, make straight his paths. [So it 
has occurred.] 2, 3. 

2. 4 John was baptizing in the wilderness, preaching 
baptism of change of mind for forgiveness of sins, 5 and 
all Judaea and the Jerusalemites went out to him, and 
were baptized by him in the Jordan, a river, confessing 
their sins. 4, 5. 

3. 6 And John was clothed with camel's hair, and a 
belt of skin about his loin, and ate locusts and wild honey, 
7 and proclaimed [preached], saying, There comes after me 
one mightier than I, the strings of whose sandals I am not 
fit to stoop down and untie. 8 1 baptized you with water, 
but he shall baptize you with holy spirit. 6-8. 

4. 9 And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came 
from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized in the Jordan 
by John, i0 and immediately, having gone up out of the 

(7) 



8 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

water, he saw the heavens opened, and the spirit [ap- 
peared] as a dove descending on him, and a voice came 
from heaven, " You are my beloved son ; with you I am 
well pleased." 9-11. 

5. 12 And immediately the spirit thrusts him into the 
wilderness, i3 and he was there in the wilderness forty 
days, tried by the adversary, and was with the beasts, and 
the angels served him. 12, 13. 

CHAPTER II. 1:14-45. 2:1-6. 

Jesus comes to Galilee, preaches, calls four fishermen, first teaches at 
Capernaum, and cures a demoniac, Peter's mother-in-law, and a 
leper. 

1. l: u And after John was cast into prison, Jesus came 
into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 saying, The 
time is completed, and the kingdom of God at hand ; 
change your minds, and believe in the gospel. 1 •. 14, 15. 

2. l6 And passing by the sea [lake] of Galilee, he saw 
Simon, and Andrew Simon's brother, casting about in the 
lake, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, 
Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. 18 And 
immediately, leaving their nets, they followed him. 19 And 
going forward a little, he saw James the [son] of Zebe- 
dee, and John his brother, and they were in the ship mend- 
ing the nets ; 20 and he immediately called them ; and, 
leaving their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired 
men, they went away after him. 16-20. 

3. 21 And they enter into Capernaum, and immediately 
on the Sabbaths he taught in the synagogue; 22 and they 
were astonished at his doctrine ; for he taught them as 
having authority, and not as the scribes. 21,22. 

4. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a 
man with an impure spirit ; and he cried out, 24 saying, 
Be still ; what is there to us and you, Jesus Nazarene ? 



chapter ii. 1 : 14-45. 2 : 1-6. 9 

You have come to destroy us. We know you, who you 
are, God's holy one. 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, 
Be still, and come out of him. 26 And having torn him, 
and cried with a loud voice, the impure spirit came out 
of him. 27 And all were astonished, so that they ques- 
tioned with themselves, saying, What is this ? The doc- 
trine is new in respect to power ; and he commands the 
impure spirits, and they obey him ; 28 and his fame went 
out immediately every where, into the whole boundary of 
Galilee. 23-28. 

5. 29 And immediately going out of the synagogue, they 
came into Simon's and Andrew's house, with James and 
John. 30 And Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with fever, 
and they immediately tell him of her ; 31 and he came, and, 
taking her hand, raised her up, and immediately the fever 
left her, and she served them. 32 And when it was even- 
ing, and the sun went down, they brought him all that 
were sick, and the demoniacs ; 33 and the whole city was 
assembled at the door; 34 and he cured many that were 
sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons ; 
and suffered not the demons to speak, because they knew 
him. 29-34. 

6. 35 And in the morning very far in the night, rising 
up, he went out, and departed into a desert place, and 
there prayed ; 36 and Simon and those with him pursued 
him, 37 and found him, and say to him, All men seek you ; 
38 and he says to them, Let us go elsewhere into the ad- 
joining villages, that I may preach there, because for this 
have I come. 39 And he preached in their synagogues in 
the whole of Galilee, and cast out demons. 35-39. 

7. 40 And a leper comes to him, asking him, and kneel- 
ing to him, and saying, If you will you can cleanse me. 
41 And Jesus pitied him, and extended his hand, and 
touched [him], and says, I will; be cleansed. 42 And when 
he spoke, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was 



10 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

cleansed ; 43 and charging him, he immediately cast him 
out, 44 and says to him, See that you tell no man any 
thing, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer for 
your cleansing what Moses commanded for a testimony 
to them. 45 And he went out, and began to publish many 
things, and to spread the report abroad, so that he was 
no longer able openly to go into a city, but was without 
in desert places; and they came to him from every 
where. 40-45. 

CHAPTER III. 2: 3: 1-6. 

Jesus, a second time at Capernaum, cures a leper, forgives and cures 
a paralytic, calls Levi, and eats with publicans, neglects fasts, al- 
lows picking grain and cures a withered hand on the Sabbath. 

1. Q: l And entering again into Capernaum after [some] 
days, it was heard that he was in a house, 2 and immedi- 
ately many were assembled together, so that there was 
no longer room about the door, and he spoke to them the 
word. 3 And they come to him, bringing a paralytic 
carried by four, 4 and not being able to approach him on 
account of the multitude, they uncovered the roof where 
he was, and having dug through, let down the bed on 
which the paralytic lay. 5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, 
says to the paralytic, Child, your sins are forgiven you. 
6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking 
in their hearts, 7 Why does this [man] speak thus ? He 
blasphemes ; who can forgive sins but one, God ? 8 And 
immediately Jesus, knowing by his spirit that they think 
thus in themselves, says to them, Why do you think thus 
in your hearts ? 9 In what is it easier to say to the para- 
lytic, Your sins are forgiven, than to say, Arise, take up 
your bed and walk? 10 But that you may know that the 
son of man has power to forgive sins on the earth, he says to 
the paralytic, I tell you, arise, take up your bed, and go 



chapter in. 2:3: 1-6. 11 

to your house. 12 And he arose, and immediately took up 
his bed, and went out before all, so that all are astonished 
and glorify God, saying, We never saw the like. 2: 1-12. 

2. 3 And he went out again by the lake, and all the 
multitude came to him, and he taught them. 14 And pass- 
ing along, he saw Levi the son of Alphseus sitting at the 
custom-house, and says to him, Follow me ; and he arose 
and followed him. I5 And it comes to pass, as he is re- 
clining in his house, that many publicans and sinners 
reclined with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many 
that followed him. 16 And the scribes and Pharisees, see- 
ing him eating with the sinners and publicans, said to his 
disciples, Does he eat and drink with the sinners and pub- 
licans? 17 And Jesus hearing, says to them, The well 
need not a physician, but the sick ; I came not to call the 
righteous, but sinners. 13-17. 

3. 18 And the disciples of John and the Pharisees were 
fasting, and they come and say to him, Why do the dis- 
ciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but 
your disciples fast not ? 19 And Jesus said to them, Can 
the sons of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is 
with th£m ? As long as they r have the bridegroom with 
them, they cannot fast ; 20 but days will come when the 
bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall 
they fast in that day. 21 ISTone sews a piece of new cloth 
on an old garment ; otherwise the new filling takes from 
the old, and the rent is made worse ; 22 and none puts 
new wine into old skins ; otherwise the wine breaks the 
skins, and the wine is lost and skins are [spoiled]. 18-22. 

4. 23 And it came to pass that he went on the Sabbaths 
through the grain, and his disciples began to make the 
journey picking the heads. 24 And the Pharisees said to 
him, See, why do they do on the Sabbath what it is not 
lawful [to do] ? 25 And he said to them, Have you never 
read what David did. when he had need and was hungry, 



12 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

and those with him ? 26 how he entered into the house of 
God under Abiathar the chief priest, and ate the show 
bread, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests, 
and gave [it] to those with him ? 27 And he said to them, 
The Sabbath was made on account of man, not man on 
account of the Sabbath; 28 so that the son of man is Lord 
even of the Sabbath. 23-28. 

5. 3 : 1 And he went again into the synagogue, and a 
man was there having a withered hand. 2 And they 
watched him to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath, 
that they might accuse him, 3 And he says to the man 
having the withered hand, Arise [and come] into the 
midst. 4 And he says to them, Is it lawful on the Sab- 
bath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill ? And 
they were silent. 5 And looking round on them with 
anger, being grieved at the hardness of their heart, he 
says to the man, Stretch out [your] hand ; and he stretched 
it out, and his hand was restored. 6 And the Pharisees 
went out immediately with the Herodians, and held coun- 
cil against him to destroy him. 3: 1-6. 



CHAPTER IV. 3: 7-35. 

Jesus is followed by multitudes, appoints twelve apostles, repels the 
charge of having Beelzeboul for an assistant, and claims all who 
do the will of God for relations. 

1. 7 And Jesus departed with his disciples to the lake, 
and a great multitude from Galilee followed ; and a great 
multitude from Judaea, 8 and Jerusalem, and Idumaea, and 
beyond the Jordan, and those about Tyre and Sidon, 
hearing what he did, came to him. 9 And he commanded 
his disciples to hold firmly the boat for him, on account 
of the multitude, that they might not oppress him, 10 for 
he cured many, so that those who had plagues fell on him, 



chapter iv. 3 : 7-35. 13 

that they might touch him ; n and the impure spirits, when 
they beheld him, worshipped him, and cried, saying, You 
are the son of God ; 12 and he charged them many times 
not to make him known. % : 1-12. 

2. 13 And he goes up on the mountain, and calls whom 
he would, and they went to him. 14 And he appointed 
twelve to be with him, that he might send them out to 
preach, 15 and to have power to cast out demons ; 16 and 
he named Simon, Peter, and [chose] James the son of 
Zebedee and John the brother of James, and called them 
Boanerges, which is, sons of thunder ; 18 and [he chose] 
Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and 
Thomas, and James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, 
and Simon the Cananite, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who also 
betrayed him. 13-19. 

3. And they come into a house, 20 and again the multi- 
tude comes together, so that they are not able to eat 
bread ; 21 and those with him, hearing of [it], went out to 
take him, for they said, He is beside himself; 22 and the 
scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He has Beel- 
zeboul, and casts out demons by the ruler of demons. 
93 And calling them, he said to them in parables, How 
can Satan cast out Satan ? 24 And if a kingdom is divided 
against itself, that kingdom cannot stand ; 25 and if a 
house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand ; 
26 and if the adversary rise up against himself, and is di- 
vided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27 But none can 
enter into a strong man's house and plunder his goods, 
unless he .first binds the strong man; then he can also 
plunder his house. 28 Truly I tell you, All the sins and 
blasphemies with which they blaspheme, shall be for- 
given the sons of men; 29 but whoever blasphemes against 
the holy spirit has no forgiveness for eternity [the aion], 
but is the subject of an eternal [aionian] sin, 30 because 
they said, He has an impure spirit. 21 " 30, 

2 



14 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

4. 31 Then come his brothers and his mother, and, stand- 
ing without, sent to him to call him ; 32 and a multitude sat 
around him, and they say to him, Behold your mother and 
your brothers and your sisters seek you without. 33 And he 
answered and says to them, Who is my mother or [who 
are] my brothers ? 34 And looking round on those sitting 
about him, he says, Behold my mother and my brothers. 
35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister 
and mother, ai-35. 

CHAPTER V. 4:5:5. 

Jesus teaches in parables by the lake, concerning soils, lights, meas- 
ures, sowers and reapers, and mustard seed, and stills a 
tempest. 

1. 4:1 Akd again he began to teach by the lake; and 
the greatest multitude is gathered to him, so that having 
entered into the ship, he sat on the lake, and all the mul- 
titude were near the lake on the land. 2 And he taught 
them many things in parables, and said to them in his 
teaching, 3 Hear : behold, the sower went out to sow, 4 and 
it came pass in sowing that some fell by the way, and the 
birds came and devoured it; 5 and other [seed] fell on a 
rocky [soil], where it had little earth, and immediately it 
came up, because it had no depth of earth ; 6 and when 
the sun rose, it was scorched, and because it had no root, 
withered. 7 And other [seed] fell among thorns [this- 
tles], and the thorns [thistles] came up and choked it, and 
it produced no fruit. 8 And other [seed] fell on good 
soil, and produced a stalk which grew up and increased, 
and bore 30 and 60 and 100 [kernels]. 9 And he said, 
He that has ears to hear, let him hear. 10 And when he was 
alone those about him with the twelve asked him con- 
cerning the parables, n and he said to them, To you is 
given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those 



chapter v. 4:5:5. 15 

without ail things are in parables, 12 that they may see 
attentively and not perceive, and hear attentively and not 
understand, lest they turn and be forgiven. 13 And he 
says to them, Do you not understand this parable ? How 
then W T ill you understand all parables ? 14 The sower 
sows the word, and those in whom the word is sown by 
the way are those who 15 when the word is sown, and when 
they hear, immediately comes the adversary and takes 
away the word sown in them. 16 And in like manner, 
those sown on the rocky places are'those who, when they 
hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, 17 and 
have no root in themselves, but are temporary; then 
when affliction or persecution comes on account of the 
word, immediately they stumble. 18 And those sown 
among thorns [thistles] are those who hear the word, and 
the cares of the aion [present time] and the deceitfulness 
of riches and the desires of other thing's entering in, 
choke the word, and it is made unproductive. 20 And 
those sown on the good soil are those who hear the 
word and receive it, and bear fruit, one 30, one 60, and 
one 100. 4 : i-20. 

2. 21 And he said to them, Does a light come to be put 
under a modius [peck measure; more exactly 1.916 gal- 
lons], or under a bed, and not be put on a light-stand ? 
22 For nothing is hidden which shall not be made mani- 
fest, nor is any thing concealed that shall not come to 
light. 23 If any one has ears to hear, let him hear. 21-23. 

3. 24 And he said to them, See how you hear; with 
what measure you measure it shall be measured to you, 
and you shall have additions ; 25 for he that has, to him is 
given ; and he that has not, from him what he has is 
taken away. 24,25. 

4. 26 And he said, The kingdom of God is as if a man 
should cast seed on the earth, 27 and sleep and wake night 
and day, and the seed germinates and grows, he knows 



16 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

not how. 28 The earth bears fruit spontaneously ; first the 
blade, then the head, then the full grain in the head ; 29 but 
when the fruit allows, immediately he sends the sickle, be- 
cause the harvest has come. 26-29. 

5. 30 And he said, To what shall I liken the kingdom 
of God, and with what parable shall I give it ? 31 It is like 
a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown on the 
earth is the least of all seeds on the earth, 32 and when 
sown it comes up and is the greatest of all herbs, and puts 
forth great branches, so that the birds of heaven dwell 
under its shade. 30-32. 

6. 33 And with many such parables spoke he the word to 
them as they could hear, 34 but spoke not to them without 
a parable, and privately explained all to his disciples. 33-34. 

7. 35 And he says to them on that day when it was 
evening, Let us cross over to the other side ; 36 and leav- 
ing the multitude, they take him as he was in the ship ; 
but there were other boats with him ; 37 and there is a 
great tempest of wind, and the waves beat into the ship 
so that the ship is already filled ; 38 and he was in the 
stern on the pillow sleeping, and they awake him, and 
say to him, Teacher, do you not care that we perish ? 
39 And being awakened, he rebuked the wind, and said to 
the lake, Be still, be quiet ; and the wind spent [itself], 
and there was a great calm. 40 And he said to them, Why 
are you so fearful ? How have you no faith ? 41 And 
they were greatly afraid, and said to each other, What 
then is this man, that the wind and lake obey him? 35-41. 



chapter ti. 5:6: 1-6. 17 

CHAPTER VI. b ~6 : 1-6E 

Jesus visits the Gerasenes, cures a demoniac, a woman with a hemor- 
rhage of 12 years, restores the daughter of Jairus to life, and 
visits Nazareth. 

1. 5 ! 1 Axd they went across the lake into the country 
of the Gerasenes ; 2 and when he went out of the ship 
there immediately met him a man from the tombs with 
an impure spirit, 3 who had his dwelling in the tombs, and 
no one was able any longer to bind him with a chain, 4 be- 
cause he was often bound with fetters and chains, and his 
chains were drawn asunder and the fetters crushed, and 
no one could tame him ; and all night and day in the 
tombs and in mountains, he was crying and cutting him- 
self with stones. 6 And seeing Jesus from afar, he ran 
and worshipped him, 7 and crying with a loud voice, says, 
What is there to me and you, Jesus, son of God the Most 
High? I adjure you by God not to torment me, 8 for he 
said to him, Impure spirit, come out of the man. 9 And 
he asked him, What is your name ? And he says to him, 
Legion is my name, for we are many. 10 And he be- 
seeches him much that he will not send them out of the 
country. n And there was near the mountain a great 
herd of swine feeding, 12 and all the demons besought him, 
saying, Send us to the swine, to enter into them. 13 And 
Jesus permitted them immediately, and the impure spirits 
w^ent out and entered into the swine, and the herd rushed 
violently down the precipice into the lake, about 2000, and 
were drowned in the lake. 14 And those that fed them fled 
and told [it] in the city and country, and they came to 
see what was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and be- 
hold, the demoniac that had had the legion [was] sitting- 
down, and clothed, and of sound mind ; and they were 
afraid. 16 And those that saw related to them how it had 
happened to the demoniac, and concerning the swine. 
2* 



18 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

* 7 And they began to beseech him to depart from their 
bounds. 18 And when he went into the ship, the [man] 
w^ho had been a demoniac besought him that he might be 
with him; 19 and he suffered him not, but says to him, Go 
to your house to your own, and tell them what the Lord 
has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you. 
20 And he went away, and began to proclaim in the De- 
capolis [ten cities] what Jesus had done for him ; and all 
wondered. 5 : 1-20. 

2. 21 And Jesus having crossed in the ship again to the 
other side, a great multitude was collected to him, and he 
was by the lake. 22 And one of the synagogue-rulers 
comes, Jairus [Jair] by name, and seeing him, falls down 
at his feet, 23 and beseeches him much, saying, My little 
daughter is in the last stage [of life] ; come and lay [your] 
hands on her, that she may be saved and live. 24 And 
he went with him, and a great multitude followed him and 
pressed upon him. 25 And there was a certain woman with 
a hemorrhage of twelve years ; 26 and she had suffered 
[tried] many things by many physicians, and expended all 
she had, and was not benefited, but rather grew worse. 
27 Hearing of Jesus, she came in the crowd from behind 
and touched his garment ; 28 for she said, If I can only 
touch his garments, I shall be saved. 29 And immediately 
the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she knew 
[felt] in her body that she was cured of the plague. 30 And 
Jesus immediately, having known [felt] in himself the 
power which had gone out of him, turning round in the 
crowd, said, Who touched my garments ? 31 And his 
disciples said to him, You see the multitude press on you, 
and do you say, Who touched me ? 32 And he looked 
round to see her that had done this; 33 and the woman, 
afraid and trembling, knowing what had been done to 
her, came and worshipped him, and told him all the truth. 
34 And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has saved you ; 
go in peace, and be well of your plague. 21-34. 



chapter vi. 5:6: 1-6. 19 

4. 35 While he was yet speaking, [persons] come from 
the synagogue-ruler's, saying, Your daughter has died, 
why further trouble the teacher ? 36 But Jesus immedi- 
ately hearing the word spoken, says to the synagogue- 
ruler, Fear not, only believe. 37 And he suffered none to 
accompany him except Peter, and James, and John the 
brother of James. 38 And they come into the house of 
the synagogue-ruler, and he beholds the tumult, and 
[persons] weeping and making many lamentations ; and 
going in, he says to them, Why do you make a tumultu- 
ous noise and weep ? The little child has not died, but 
sleeps. 40 And they laughed at him. And putting all 
out, he takes the father and mother of the little child, and 
those with him, and goes in where the little child was ; 
41 and taking the little child's hand, says to her, Talitha 
kum, which is interpreted, girl, (I tell you,) arise. 42 And 
immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve 
years old. And they were at once astonished with great 
astonishment ; 43 and he strictly charged them that none 
should know it, and directed food to be given her. 21-13. 

5. 6 : * And he went out thence, and comes to his native 
country, and his disciples follow him ; 2 and when it was 
the sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue, and 
many, hearing, were astonished, saying, Whence has this 
[man] these things, and what is the wisdom which is 
given him, that such powers are exercised by his hands ? 

3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother 
of James, and Joset, and Judas, and Simon ? And are 
not his sisters here with us ? And they stumbled at him. 

4 And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor 
except in his native country, and among his relations, and 
in his house ; 5 and he could exercise no power there, ex- 
cept, putting his hands on a few, he cured them, and 
wondered on account of their unbelief. 6: 1-6. 



20 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 



CHAPTER VII. 6:6-56. 

Jesus travels and employs the twelve apostles as assistants, is thought 
by Herod [Antipas] to be John the Baptist, Herod's murder of 
John, report of the twelve apostles, Jesus feeds 5000, visits Beth- 
saida, walking on the- lake visits Gennesaret, and cures many. 

1. 6 :6 And he went in a circuit about the villages, teach- 
ing; 7 and calls the twelve, and began to send them 
out by twos, and gave them authority over impure spirits, 
8 and charged them to take nothing for the way except a 
stick only ; not bread, not a sack [for provisions], nor 
money for the purse, 9 but to be furnished with sandals; 
and put not on [says he] two coats. 10 And he said to them, 
Wherever you enter a house, remain there till you depart 
from the place. n And whatever place will not receive 
you, nor hear you, when you go out thence, shake off the 
dust from under your feet for a testimony to them. 12 And 
having gone out, they preached that they should change 
their minds, ]3 and cast out many demons, and anointed 
many sick with oil, and cured them. 6-13. 

2. H And king Herod [Antipas] heard, for his name was 
famous, and said, John that baptizes, has risen from the 
dead, and on that account [superior] powers are exercised 
by him ; 15 but some said, He is Elijah, and others, He is 
a prophet like one of the prophets ; 16 but Herod, hearing, 
said, John whom I beheaded, is raised up. 14-16. 

3. 17 For Herod had sent and took John, and bound 
him in prison, on account of Herodias his brother Philip's 
wife; for he had married her. 18 For John had said to 
Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's 
wife; ]9 and Herodias had a quarrel with him, and wished 
to kill him, but could not, 20 for Herod feared John, know- 
ing that he was a righteous and holy man, and watched 



chaptee vii. 6 : 6-56. 21 

him, and heard him, and did many things, and heard him 
gladly. 21 And on a convenient day, when Herod made a 
dinner for his great men and chiliarchs [commanders of 
thousands], and the first [men] of Galilee, 22 the daughter 
of this same Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased 
Herod and those that reclined with him. And the king 
said to the girl, Ask me what you will, and I will 
give [it] to you. 23 And he swore to her, I will give what 
you ask, to half my kingdom. 24 And she went in and 
said to her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The 
head of John that baptizes. 25 And she went in immediately 
with haste to the king, and asked, saying, I wish you to 
give me immediately, on a plate, the head of John the 
Baptist. 26 And the king, [though] very sorry, on account 
of the oath and those who reclined, would not refuse her. 
27 And immediately sending an attendant, the king com- 
manded that his head should be brought ; 28 and he went 
and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head on 
a plate, and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her 
mother. 29 And his disciples heard, and went and took 
his body and put it in a tomb. 17-29. 

4. 30 And the apostles assemble to Jesus, and related to 
him what they had done, and what they had taught. 
31 And he says to them, Come [by] yourselves privately 
into a desert place, for many were coming and going, and 
they found .no opportunity to eat. 32 And they went 
away into a desert place in a ship privately ; 33 and many 
saw them going, and knew [them], and they ran together 
there on foot from all the cities, and went before them, 
and came together to him. 30-33. 

5. 34 And he went out and saw a great multitude, and 
pitied them, for they were as sheep without a shepherd, 
and he began to teach them many things. 35 And now 
when the day was far spent, his disciples come to him and 
say, The place is a wilderness, and the day is far spent; 



22 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

36 dismiss them that they may go around to the country 
and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have 
nothing to eat. 37 And he answered and said to them, 
Give them [food] to eat. And they say to him, Shall we 
go and buy 200 denarii [$28] worth of bread, and give 
them to eat ? 38 And Jesus says to them, How much bread 
have you '? Go and see. And knowing, they say, Five 
loaves and two fishes. 39 And he commanded them to 
make all recline in companies on the green^grass ; 40 and 
they reclined in companies, by hundreds and fifties ; 41 and 
he took the five loaves and two fishes, and looked up to 
heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave to the 
disciples to set before them, and divided the two fishes 
to all, 42 and all ate and were filled ; 43 and they took up 
twelve travelling-baskets of fragments, and [portions] of 
the two fishes. 44 And those that ate the loaves were 
5000 men. 34-44. 

6. 45 And immediately he compelled his disciples to 
enter into the ship, and lead across to Bethsaida, while 
he dismissed the multitude. 46 And having dismissed 
them, he went away on a mountain to pray. 47 And when 
it was evening the ship was in the midst of the lake, and 
he alone on the land ; 48 and seeing them troubled to get 
along, because the wind was against them, about the 
fourth watch of the night [3 A. M.] he comes to them 
walking on the lake, and wished to pass by them. 49 But 
they, seeing [him] walking on the lake, thought he was 
an apparition, and cried out ; 50 for they all saw him, and 
were troubled. And immediately he spoke with them, 
and says to them, Be of good, courage; it is I; be not 
afraid. 51 And he went up to them into the ship, and the 
wind spent itself; and they were exceedingly astonished 
in themselves and wondered, 52 for they understood not 
concerning the loaves, because their heart was hard- 
ened. 45-52. 



chapter viii. 7 : 1-23. 23 

7. 53 And they crossed and came to the land of Genne- 
saret, and came to anchor. 54 And when they went out 
of the ship they knew him, 55 and ran through that whole 
region, and began to bring around the sick on beds where 
they heard he was; 56 and wherever he went in the vil- 
lages, cities, or fields, they put the sick in the market 
places, and besought him that they might touch but the 
hem of his garment; and as many as touched were 
saved. 53-56. 

CHAPTER VIII. 7:1-23. 

Jesus disparages Jewish baptisms and traditions. 

1. 7 : ] And there are assembled to him the Pharisees and 
some of the scribes who came from Jerusalem, 2 and hav- 
ing seen some of his disciples with common, that is, un- 
washed hands, eating bread, — 3 for the Pharisees and all 
the Jews eat not unless they wash the hands with the 
fist, holding the tradition of the presbyters ; 4 and from a 
market, unless they baptize, they eat not ; and there are 
many other things which they have received to hold, bap- 
tisms of cups and sextuses [1-| pint measures], and brass 
vessels and couches ; — 5 and the Pharisees and scribes 
asked him, Why walk not your disciples according to the tra- 
dition of the presbyters, but eat bread with common hands ? 
6 And he said to them, Well prophesied Isaiah concerning 
you, hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me 
with their lips, but their heart is far away from me: 7 in 
vain they worship me, teaching doctrines [and] command- 
ments of men [Isa. 29: 13] ; 8 for leaving the command- 
ments of God, you hold the tradition of men, baptisms 
of sextuses and cups ; and do many other such things. 
9 And he said to them, Well do you reject the command- 
ment of God to keep your tradition ; 10 for Moses said, 
Honor your father and your mother, and let him that 



24 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

reviles father or mother surely die ; n but you say, If a man 
says to a father or mother, Whatever profit you might have 
from me, is a corban, which is a gift [for a religious pur- 
pose], 32 you no longer suffer him to do a thing for his 
father or mother, 13 making void the word [logos] of God 
by your tradition which you have handed down; and 
you do many such things, i : 1-13. 

2. 14 And having called the multitude again, he said to 
them, Hear me, all, and understand ; 15 nothing out of man, 
entering into him, can defile him ; but the things which 
proceed from the man defile him. 16 He that has ears to 
hear, let him hear. 17 And when he entered into the 
house from the multitude, his disciples asked him the 
parable. 18 And he says to them, Are you also so unin- 
telligent ? Do you not know that nothing from without 
entering into a man can make him common, 19 because it 
enters not into his heart, but into the belly ; and he goes 
out into the privy, purifying [discharging] all meats. 
20 And he said, What proceeds from the man defiles the 
man ; 21 for from within out of the heart of man proceed 
evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, 
frauds, mischiefs, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blas- 
phemy, pride, folly ; 23 all these evil [doings] proceed 
from within, and defile the man. 14-23. 



CHAPTER IX. 7:24. 8:9. 

Jesus visits Tyre, cures the demoniac daughter of a gentile woman, 
goes through Sidon to the Decapolis, cures a deaf stammerer, and 
feeds 4000. 

1. 24 And he rose up and departed thence into the 
bounds of Tyre, and having entered into a house he 
wished none to know [it], and he could not be hid ; 25 but 
immediately a woman whose daughter had an impure 



chapter ix. 7 : 24. 8:9. 25 

spirit heard of him, and came and worshipped at his feet; 
28 and she was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by race ; and 
she besought him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 
27 And he said to her, Suffer first the children to be filled ; 
it is not right to take the children's bread and cast it to 
the little dogs. 28 But she answered and says to him, 
Yes, Lord, for the little dogs under the table eat of the 
children's crumbs. 29 And he said to her, For this speech, 
go ; the demon has gone out of your daughter; 30 and she 
went to her house, and found the little child laid on a 
bed and the demon gone out. 24-30. 

2. 31 And again going out of the bounds of Tyre, he 
came through Sidon to the lake of Galilee, in the midst 
of the bounds of Decapolis ; 32 and they bring a deaf man 
who spoke with difficulty, and beseech him to put [his] 
hand on him. 33 And he took him away from the multi- 
tude, and privately put his fingers in his ears, and having 
spit, touched his tongue, 34 and looking up to heaven, 
groaned and says to him, Ephatha, which is, Be opened. 
35 And immediately his ears were opened and the bond 
of his tongue loosed ; 36 and he charged them to tell no 
one; but as much as he charged them, so much the more 
they proclaimed [his cures] ; 37 and were exceedingly 
astonished, saying, He has done all things well ; he even 
makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak. 31-37. 

3. 8:1 In those days the multitude being very great, 
and having nothing to eat, he calls the disciples and says 
to them, 2 I pity the multitude, because now three days 
they continue with me, and have nothing to eat ; 

3 and if I send them away fasting to their homes, they 
will faint by the way, and some of them are from far. 

4 And his disciples answered him, Whence can we satisfy 
them with bread here in the wilderness ? 5 And he asked 
them, How many loaves have you ? And they said, 
Seven. 6 And he commands the multitude to recline on 

3 



26 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

the ground, and took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, 
and broke, and gave to his disciples to set before them ; and 
they set them before the multitude. And they had a few 
little fishes, and having blessed them, he gave command 
to set them on also. 8 And they ate and were filled, and 
took up seven store-baskets of fragments that remained 
over ; 9 and they were about 4000 ; and he dismissed them. 

8 : 1-9. 

CHAPTER X. 8:10-26. 

Jesus visits Dalmanutha, refuses to give a sign, visits Bethsaida, 
cures a blind man. 

1. 10 And immediately, entering into the ship with his< 
disciples, he came into the parts of Dalmanutha ; n and 
the Pharisees went out, and began to dispute with him, 
seeking of him a sign from heaven, to try him ; 12 and, 
groaning in his spirit, he says, Why does this generation 
seek a sign ? Truly I tell you, No sign shall be given to 
this generation. 13 And he left them, and again went 
aboard [of the ship], and departed to the other side. io-i3. 

2. 14 And they forgot to take bread, and had but one 
loaf with them in the ship. 15 And he charged them, say- 
ing, See, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the 
leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned with one another, 
that they have no bread ; 17 and Jesus, knowing, says, 
Why do you reason, that you have no bread ? Do you 
not yet know nor understand ? Have you your heart yet 
hardened ? 18 Having eyes, do you not see ; and having 
ears, do you not hear nor remember? 19 When I broke 
the five loaves for the 5000, how many travelling-baskets 
full of fragments took you up ? They say to him, Twelve. 
20 And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4000, how 
many store-baskets full of fragments took you up ? And 
they say to him, Seven. 21 And he said to them, How do 
you not understand ? 



chaptee xi. 8 : 27. 9 : 29. 27 

3. 22 And they come to Bethsaida ; and they bring him 
a blind man, and beseech him to touch him. 23 And 
taking the hand of the blind man, he brought him out of 
the village, and spit on his eyes, and put his hands on 
him, and asked him, Do you see ? 24 And, looking up, 
he said, I see men, but I see them as trees walking. 
25 Then he put his hands on his eyes again, and he per- 
ceived clearly, and was restored, and saw all obiects 
clearly. 26 And he sent him to his house, saying, Go not 
into the village, tell none in the village. 22-26. 



CHAPTER XI. 8:27. 9:29. 

Jesus visits Ceesarea Philippi, asks his disciples who men say he is, 
who they say he is; declares the dangers of his service, predicts his 
second coming, is transfigured, and cures an epileptic demoniac. 

1. 27 And Jesus and his disciples went out to the vil- 
lages of Csesarea Philippi ; and on the way, he asked his 
disciples, saying to them, "Who do men say that I am ? 
28 And they told him, saying, [Some,] John the Baptist, 
and others, Elijah, and others, One of the prophets. 29 And 
he asked them, Who say you that I am ? Peter answered 
and says, You are the Christ. 30 And he charged them to 
tell none concerning him, 31 and began to teach them that 
the son of man must suffer many thiugs, and be rejected 
by the presbyters and chief priests and scribes, and be 
killed, and after three days be raised up; 32 and he spoke 
the word openly. And Peter took him, and began to 
rebuke him ; 33 and he turned round and looked on his 
disciples, and rebuked Peter, and says, Get behind me, 
adversary ; for you regard not the things of God, but those 
of men. 27-33. 

2. 34 And he called the multitude, with his disciples, 
and said to them, Whoever will follow after me [at a 



28 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

distance], let him deny himself, and take up his cross and 
follow me [at hand] ; 35 for whoever will save his life 
shall lose it; and whoever will lose his life on my account 
and the gospel's, shall save it ; 36 for what does it profit a 
man to gain the whole world and be deprived of his life ? 
37 for what is the exchange of his life ? 38 for whoever is 
ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous 
and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also 
be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his father 
with the holy angels. 9 : 1 And he said to them, Truly 
I tell you, Some of those standing here shall by no 
means taste death till they see the kingdom of God hav- 
ing come with power. 34-9 : 1. 

3. 2 And after six days, Jesus takes Peter and James 
and John, and brings them up on a high mountain alone, 
privately, and was transfigured before them ; 3 and his 
garments became glistening, very white, such as no fuller 
on earth could whiten. 4 And Elijah appeared to them, 
with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And 
Peter answered, and says to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for 
us to be here ; and let us make three tents ; one for you, 
and one for Moses, and one for Elijah; 6 for he knew not 
what to say, for they were afraid. 7 And there was a cloud 
overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud, 
This is my beloved son ; hear him. 8 And immediately 
looking round, they saw none but Jesus only with them. 
9 And as they come down from the mountain, he charged 
them to tell none what they saw, except when the son of 
man has risen from the dead. 10 And they kept the saying 
to themselves, querying as to what is the rising from the 
dead. n And they asked him, saying, Why say the 
scribes that Elijah must come first? 12 And he said 
to them, Elijah, having come, restores all things ; 
and [he recited] how it is written concerning the son 
of man, that he suffered much, and was set at nought. 



chapter xi. 8 : 27. 9 : 29. 29 

13 But I tell you [says he], that Elijah also came, and 
they did to him as they would, as it is written concerning 
him. 2-13. 

4. 14 And he came to his disciples, and saw a great mul- 
titude about them, and scribes disputing with them. 
15 And immediately all the multitude saw him, and were 
astonished, and ran and saluted him. 16 And he as£ed 
them, What dispute had you with them ? 17 And one of 
the multitude answered him, Teacher, I brought my son 
to you, having a dumb spirit ; 18 and whenever he takes 
him, he rends him, and he foams and gnashes his teeth, 
and becomes parched ; and I applied to your disciples to 
cast it out, and they could not. 19 And, answering them, 
he says, O faithless generation ; how long shall I be with 
you ? how long shall I suffer you ? Bring him to me. 
20 And they brought him to him, and he saw him ; and 
immediately the spirit tore him, and he fell on the ground 
and wallowed, foaming. 21 And he asked his father, How 
long a time is it that this has been on him? And he said, 
From a child ; 22 and often also he casts him into the fire 
to destroy him ; but if you can, help us, and have mercy 
on us. 23 Jesus said to him, If you can ? All things are 
possible to him that believes. 24 And immediately, crying 
out, the child's father said, I believe ; help my unbelief. 
25 And Jesus, seeing that the multitude ran together, re- 
buked the impure spirit, saying to him, Dumb and deaf 
spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter no more 
into him ; 26 and he cried aloud, and tore him much, arid 
came out ; and he was as a dead [man], so that many say, 
He is dead. 2T But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised 
him up, and he stood up. 28 And, entering into the house, 
his disciples asked him privately, Why could we not cast 
it out ? 29 And he said to them, This kind can go out by 
nothing except by prayer. 14-29. 
3* 



30 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

CHAPTER XII. 9:30-50. 

Jesus returns to Capernaum, forbids illiberality, and warns us to 
guard against occasions of sin. 

1. 30 And going out thence, he made his journey 
through Galilee, and would not that any should know [it] ; 

31 for he taught his disciples, and said to them, The son of 
man is betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill 
him, and when he is killed, after three days he shall be 
raised up. 32 And they understood not the word, and 
feared to ask him. 30-32. 

2. 33 And he came to Capernaum, and when he was in 
the house, asked them, What did you reason upon with 
yourselves on the way ? 34 And they were silent ; for they 
had debated with each other on the way, who should be 
the greater. 35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, 
and says to them, If any one will be first, he shall be last 
of all and servant of all ; 36 and taking a child, he placed 
it in the midst of them, and took it in his arms, and said 
to them, 37 Whoever takes one of these children in my 
name, takes me, and whoever takes me, takes not me, but 
him that sent me. 38 And John spoke to him, saying, 
Teacher, we saw one casting out demons by your name, 
who follows not with us, and we forbade him. 39 But 
Jesus said, Forbid him not ; for there is none that can 
perform a mighty work by my name, and quickly speak 
evil of me ; 40 for whoever is not against us is for us ; 
41 for whoever gives you to drink a cup of water, because 
you are Christ's, truly I tell you, he shall not lose his re- 
ward. 42 And whoever shall cause one of these little ones, 
having faith, to fall, it would be better for him if a mill- 
stone was put about his neck, and he was cast into the 
sea. 43 And if your hand cause you to fall, cut it off; it 
is better for you maimed to enter into life, than, having 



chapter xni. 10 : 31 

two hands, to depart into gehenna [Hinnom's vale], into 
the fire which is not extinguished. 45 And if your foot 
cause you to fall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter 
into life lame, than, having two feet, to be cast into ge- 
henna [Hinnom's vale]. 47 And if your eye cause you to 
fall, cast it out ; it is better for you with one eye to enter 
into the kingdom of God, than, having two eyes, to be cast 
into gehenna [Hinnom's vale], 48 where their worm dies 
not, and the fire is not extinguished [Isa. 66 : 24] ; 49 for 
every [man] shall be seasoned with fire, and every sacri- 
fice be seasoned with salt. 50 Salt is good ; but if the salt 
loses its saltness, with what will you restore it ? Have 
salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other. 30-50. 

CHAPTER XIII. 10: 

Jesus goes to Judgea, on the east side of the Jordan, journeying to 
Jerusalem ; his doctrines concerning infants, marriage, riches ; pre- 
diction of his death, and the cure of blind Bartimaeus. 

1. l And he rose up and goes thence into the bounds 
of Judasa and [the country] beyond the Jordan, and great 
multitudes travel with him ; and, as his custom was, he 
taught them. 2 And the Pharisees came to him, and 
asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ? 
trying him. 3 And he answered and said to them, What 
did Moses command you ? 4 And they said, Moses suf- 
fered [us] to write a bill of divorcement, and put [her] 
away. 5 But Jesus said to them, He wrote you this ordi- 
nance on account of the hardness of your hearts ; 6 but 
from the beginning of creation, he [Moses] made them 
male and female ; 7 for this reason a man leaves his father 
and mother, and is joined to his wife ; a and the two are one 
liesh, so they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What, 



32 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

therefore, God has yoked together, let not man separate. 
10 And again in the house the disciples asked him concern- 
ing this. n And he says to them, Whoever puts away his 
wife and marries another, commits adultery with her; 
12 and if the woman puts away her husband, and is mar- 
ried to another, she commits adultery. 1-12. 

2. 13 And they brought him young children, that he 
should touch them ; and the disciples rebuked those bring- 
ing them. 14 But Jesus saw it, and was displeased, and 
said to them, Suffer the little children to come to me, and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. 
15 Truly I tell you, Whoever does not take the kingdom 
of God as a little child, shall not enter into it ; 16 and he 
took them in his arms, and put his hands on them, and 
blesses them. 13-16. 

3. 17 And as he was proceeding on the way, one ran and 
kneeled, and asked him, Good teacher, what shall I do to 
inherit aionian [eternal] life ? 18 But Jesus said to him, 
Why do you call me good? None is good but one, God. 
19 You know the commandments : You shall not commit 
adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall 
not testify falsely, you shall not defraud, honor your father 
and your mother. 20 And he answered and said to him, 
All these have I .kept from my youth. 21 And Jesus 
looked on him, and loved him, and said to him, One thing 
you lack. Go sell what you have, and give [it] to the 
poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven ; and come, 
take up your cross, and follow me. 22 And he went away 
displeased, grieved at that saying [logos], for he was 
having great possessions. 23 And Jesus, having looked 
about, says to his disciples, How hardly shall those having 
riches enter into the kingdom of God ! 24 But his disci- 
ples were astonished at his words ; and Jesus, again an- 
swering, says to them, Children, how hardly shall those 



chapter xin. 10 : 33 

trusting in riches enter into the kingdom of God ! 25 It 
is easier for a camel to go in through the eye of a needle, 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 
26 And they were astonished above measure, saying to 
themselves, And who can be saved ? 27 Jesus, looking on 
them, says, With man it is impossible, but not with God ; 
for with God all things are possible. 16-27. 

4. 28 Peter began to say to him, Behold, we have left 
all and followed you. 29 Jesus said to him, Truly I tell 
you, There is none who has ]eft house, or brothers, or sis- 
ters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for me and 
for the gospel, 30 who shall not receive a hundred fold 
now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and 
mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions ; and 
in the aion [age] to come, life aionian [eternal] ; 31 but 
many first shall be last, and the last first. 28-31. 

5. 32 And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem, 
and Jesus going before them ; and they were astonished, 
and following, were afraid. And again he took aside the 
twelve, and began to tell them the things about to hap- 
pen to him. 33 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the 
son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and 
scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver 
him to the nations; 34 and they will mock him, and 
scourge him with rods, and spit on him, and kill him, and 
after three days he shall be raised up. 32-34. 

6. 35 And James and John, sons of Zebedee, come to 
him, saying, Teacher, we wish you to do for us whatever 
we ask of you. 36 And he said to them, "What do you 
wish me to do for you ? 37 And they said to him, Grant 
us that we may sit, one on your right hand, and the other 
on the left, in your glory, 38 But Jesus said to them, You 
know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the 
cup of which I drink, and to be baptized with the bap- 



34 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK, 

tism with which I am baptized ? 39 And they said to him, 
We are able. But Jesus said to them, You shall drink of 
the cup of which I drink, and be baptized with the bap- 
tism with which I am baptized; 40 but to sit on my right 
hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but to those for 
whom it is prepared. 35-40. 

7. 41 And the twelve heard, and began to be displeased 
with James and John. 42 And Jesus called them, and says 
to them, You know that those who think to rule the na- 
tions exercise lordship over them, and their great men 
exercise authority over them ; 43 but it is not so with you ; 
but whoever will be great among you, shall be your ser- 
vant ; 44 and whoever will be first of all, shall be lowest 
servant of all ; 45 for the son of man came not to be served, 
but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many. 41-45. 

8. 46 And they come -to Jericho ; and when he and his 
disciples, and a great multitude, go from Jericho, Bar- 
timaeus, son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, sat by the way ; 

47 and when he heard, He is Jesus the Nazarene, he began 
to cry, and say, O son of David, have mercy on me. 

48 And many rebuked him, and [told] him to be still ; but 
he cried much more, Son of David, have mercy on me. 

49 And Jesus stopped, and said, Call him. And they call 
the blind man, saying, Be of good courage; arise, he calls 
you. 50 And he threw off his garment, and leaping up, 
came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus answered and said to him, 
What do you wish me to do for you ? And the blind 
man said to him, Rabbouni, that I may recover sight. 
52 And Jesus said to him, Go ; your faith has saved you ; 
and immediately he recovered sight, and followed Jesus 
in the way. 40-52. 



CHAPTER XIT. 11 : 35 



CHAPTER XIV. 11: 

Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph^ visits the temple, curses a fig tree, 
purines the temple, inculcates faith in God, and refuses to show 
his authority. 

1. x And when they come nigh to Jerusalem and 
Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sends two of his dis- 
ciples, 2 and says to them, Go into the village against you, 
and immediately, on entering into it, you will find a colt 
tied, on which no man ever sat ; loose him, and bring him ; 

3 and it any one asks, why you do this, say, The Lord 
has need of him ; and immediately he will send him here. 

4 And they went, and found a colt tied at a door without, 
where there were two ways, and they loose him. 5 And 
some of those that stood [there] said to them, What are 
you doing, loosing the colt? 6 And they said to them as 
Jesus said ; and they let them go ; 7 and they bring the 
colt to Jesus, and put on it their clothes ; and he sat on 
it ; 8 and many spread their clothes in the way, and others 
branches of the trees, having cut them from the fields ; 

9 and those that go before, and those that follow, cried, 
Hosanna ; blessed is he that comes in the name of Kurios ; 

10 blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David ; ho- 
sanna in the highest. n And he came to Jerusalem, to 
the temple ; and having looked about on all things, it 
being now [Sunday] evening, he went out to Bethany 
with the twelve. 1-11. 

2. 12 And on the next day [Monday], they having come 
from Bethany, he was hungry ; 13 and he saw a fig tree 
from a distance, having leaves, and came, if perhaps he 
might find [fruit] on it ; and when he came to it, he found 
none, but only leaves, for it was not the time for figs. 14 And 
he answered and said to it, Let none eat fruit from you 
for the aion [forever] ; and his disciples heard. 15 And 



36 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

be comes to Jerusalem, and entered into the temple, and 
began to cast out the sellers and buyers in the temple, 
and overturned the tables of the brokers, and the seats of 
them that sell doves ; 16 and suffered none to carry a ves- 
sel through the temple ; 17 and taught, and said, It is 
written, that my house shall be called a house of prayer 
for all nations ; but you have made it a den of robbers. 
18 And the chief priests and scribes heard, and sought how 
they might destroy him ; for they feared him, for all the 
multitude were astonished at his doctrine. 19 And when 
it was evening, he went out of the city. 12. 

3. 20 And as they passed along in the morning [of Tues- 
day], they saw the fig tree withered from the roots, 21 and 
Peter remembered, and says to him, Rabbi, see ; the fig 
tree which you cursed is withered. 22 And Jesus answered 
and says to him, Have the faith of God : 23 truly I tell you, 
whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into 
the sea, and doubts not in his heart, but believes that 
what he says is, he shall have it. 24 For this reason I tell 
you, All things that you pray for and ask, believe that 
you have obtained them, and they shall be [given] you ; 
25 and when you stand praying, forgive, if you have any 
thing against any one, that your father in heaven may for- 
give you your trespasses. 20-25. 

4. 27 And they come again to Jerusalem ; and as he 
walks about in the temple, the chief priests, and scribes, 
and presbyters come to him 28 and said to him, By what 
authority do you perform these things ? or who gave you 
this authority to perform them ? 29 And Jesus said to 
them, I will ask you one question, and answer me, and I 
will tell you by what authority I perform these things. 
30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men ? 
Answer me. 31 And they reasoned with themselves, say- 
ing, If we say, From heaven, he will say, Why did you 
not believe him ? 32 but if we say, Of men, they feared 



CHAPTEE XV. 12 : 37 

the people, for all had John as really a prophet. 33 And 
they answered and say to Jesus, We do not know. And 
Jesus says to them, Neither do I tell you by what authority 
I do these things. 27-33. 

CHAPTER XV. 12: 

Jesus [on Tuesday] relates the parable of the wicked husbandmen, 
gives his opinion concerning tribute, the resurrection, the principal 
commandment, the son of David, the Jewish lawyers, and the 
widow's mite. 

1. x And he began to speak to them in parables. A 
man planted a vineyard, and put a hedge around it, and 
dug a wine vat, and built a tower, and let it out to husband- 
men. 2 And he sent a servant to the husbandmen at the 
time, to receive of the husbandmen of the fruits of the 
vineyard. 3 And they took him and scourged him, and sent 
him away empty. 4 And again he sent to them another 
servant ; and they stoned and wounded him on the head, 
and sent him away disgraced. 5 And he sent another, and 
they killed him ; and many others, some of whom they 
scourged, and some killed. 6 He had yet one beloved son ; 
last he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son. 

7 But those husbandmen said to themselves, This is the 
heir: come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. 

8 And they took and killed him, and cast him out of the 
vineyard. 9 What will the Lord of the vineyard do ? 
He will come and destroy those husbandmen, and let his 
vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this scripture, 
The stone which the builders rejected has become head of 
the corner ? n This was from Kurios, and is wonderful 
in our eyes. [Ps. 118: 22.] 12 And they sought to take 
him, and feared the multitude, for they knew that he spoke 
the parable against them ; and they left him, and went 
away. 12 : 1-12. 

4 



38 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MAEK. 

2. 13 And they send to him some of the Pharisees and 
Herodians to take him in [his] speech. 14 They came 
and say to him, Teacher, we know that you are true, and 
care not for any one, for you respect not the face of man, 
but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give 
tribute to Caesar or not ? Shall we give, or not give ? 
15 He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, Why do you 
try me ? Bring me a denarius [14 cents], that I may see 
it. 16 And they brought him [one], and he says to them, 
Whose is this image and the inscription ? And they said, 
Caesar's ; 17 and Jesus said to them, Give Caesar's [dues] to 
Caesar, and God's to God ; and they wondered at him. 13-17. 

3. 18 And the Sadducees come to him, who say there is 
no resurrection, and asked him, saying, 19 Teacher, Moses 
wrote to us, that if one's brother dies and leaves a wife, 
and leaves no child, his brother shall take the wife, and 
raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven 
brothers ; and the first took a wife, and died, leaving no 
child; 21 and the second took her, and died, and he left 
none ; and the third likewise ; 22 and the seven left no chil 
dren ; last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrec- 
tion, when they have risen, whose wife of them shall she 
be, for the seven had her for a wife ? 24 Jesus said to 
them, You err for this reason, because you know not the 
Scriptures, nor the power of God ; 25 for when they have 
risen from the dead, they neither marry nor are married, 
but are as the angels in heaven. 26 But concerning the 
dead, that they are raised, have you not read in the book 
of Moses, at the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I 
am the God of Abraham, and God of Isaac, and God of 
Jacob ? 27 God is not a [GodJ of the dead, but of the living ; 
you greatly err. is-27. 

4. 28 And one of the scribes <3ame, who'heard them dis- 
puting, knowing that he answered well, and asked him, 
What is the first commandment of all ? 29 Jesus answered, 



CHAPTER XV. 12 : 39 

The first is, Hear, Israel : Kurios, your God is the only Lord, 
30 and you shall love Kurios, your God, with your whole 
heart, and your whole soul, and your whole mind, and 
your whole strength. [Deut: 6:4.] 31 The second is this. 
You shall love your neighbor as yourself; [Levit. 16 : 18.] 
there is no commandment greater than these. 32 And the 
scribe said, Well, teacher, you have said truly, There is one, 
and no other besides him ; 33 and to love him with the 
whole heart, and the whole understanding, and the whole 
soul, and the whole strength, and to love [one's] neighbor 
as himself, is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. 
34 And Jesus, seeing that he answered discreetly, said to 
him, You are not far from the kingdom of God ; and no 
one after this dared to question him. 2&-34. 

5. 35 And Jesus answered and said, teaching in the 
temple, How say the scribes that Christ is a son of 
David, 36 David himself said by the Holy Spirit, The Lord 
says to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, till I put your 
enemies under your feet. [Ps. 110: 1.] 37 David himself 
calls him Lord, and whence is he his son ? And the great 
multitude heard him gladly. 35-37. 

6. 38 And in his teachings he said, Beware of the scribes, 
who desire to walk in robes, and [desire] salutations in 
the markets, 39 and the first seats in the synagogues, and 
the first couches at feasts, 40 who devour widows' houses, 
and in pretence pray long : they shall receive greater 
judgment. 38-40. 

7. 41 And he sat before the treasury, and beheld how the 
multitude cast money into the treasury. And many rich 
cast in much, 42 and one poor widow came, and cast in 
two lepta which is one quadrans [4 mills] ; 43 and he called 
his disciples, and says to them, Truly I tell you, This poor 
widow has cast into the treasury more than all [the rest] ; 
44 for all [the rest] have cast in of their abundance, but 
she of her need has cast in all she had, her whole living. 

41-44. 



40 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MAEK. 

CHAPTER XVI. 13: 

Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem and his second coming. 

1. l And [Jesus] going out from the temple, one of his 
disciples says to him, See what stones ! and what buildings ! 
2 And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings ? 
There shall not be left stone upon stone, which shall not 
be thrown down. 3 And sitting on the Mount of Olives 
opposite to the temple, Peter, and James, and John, and 
Andrew asked him privately, 4 Tell us when these things 
shall be, and what [shall be] the sign, when all these 
things are about to be finished. 5 And Jesus began to say 
to them, See that none misleads you, 6 for many shall come 
in my name, saying, I am [the Christ], and mislead many; 
7 and when you hear of wars and reports of wars, be not 
terrified, [these] must be, but the end is not yet. 8 For 
nation shall raise up against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom. There shall be earthquakes in places, there 
shall be famines and disturbances ; 9 these are the begin- 
nings of sorrows. . But consider yourselves, they shall 
deliver you up to Sanhedrims, and you shall be beaten in 
synagogues, and be made to stand before governors and 
kings, on account of me, and for a testimony to them ; 

10 and the gospel must first be preached to all nations ; 

11 and when they lead you and deliver you up, be not 
anxious beforehand as to what you shall say, neither study, 
but say what is given you in that hour, for you are not 
speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 12 And brother shall deliver 
up brother to death, and father child, and children shall 
rise up against parents and kill them ; 13 and you shall be 
hated by all on account of my name ; but he that continues 
to the end shall be saved. 14 But when you see the 
abomination of desolation standing where it ought not, — 
let him that reads understand, — then let those in Judea 



CHAPTER XVI. 13 : 41 

flee to the mountains, 15 and let not him on the house 
come down, nor enter into the house to take any thing 
out of his house ; 16 nor let him that is in the field 
turn back to take his garment ; 17 and woe to those 
with child and giving suck in those days. 18 But pray 
that it be not in winter, 19 for those days shall be an afflic- 
tion such as has not been from the beginning of [the] 
creation which God created, till now, and shall never be 
[again]. 20 And unless Kurios had shortened the days, 
no flesh should be saved, but for the elects' sake whom he 
has elected, he has shortened the days. 21 And then if 
any one says to you, See here, the Christ ; see there, 
believe not, 22 for false prophets shall be raised up, and 
perform signs and prodigies to mislead, if possible, the 
elect. 23 But see, I have foretold you all things. 13 : 1-2.3. 

2. 24 But in those days, after that affliction [the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem], the sun shall be darkened, and the 
moon not give her light, 25 and the stars shall fall from 
heaven, and the powers which are in the heavens shall be 
shaken ; 26 and then shall they see the son of man coming 
in the clouds with much power and glory. 27 And then 
shall he send the angels and gather the elect from the four 
winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven. 
28 Learn the parable from the fig tree, [that] when its 
branch is tender and puts forth leaves/it is known that 
the summer is nigh ; 29 so also when you see these things 
come to pass, know that [the son of man] is nigh at 
the doors. 30 Truly I tell you that this generation shall 
not pass away till all these things have come to pass; 
31 heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall 
not pass away. 32 But of that day or the hour, none knows, 
— neither angel in heaven, nor the son, — but the father. 
33 Consider, watch, for you know not when the time is : 
as a man going abroad, leaving his house and giving his 
servants authority, [enjoined] on each his work, and coim 
4 * 



42 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

manded the door-keeper to watch [so I command]. 35 Do 
you watch therefore, for you know not when the lord of 
the house comes, whether in the evening, or at midnight, 
or at the cock crowing, or in the morning ; 36 lest, coming 
suddenly, he find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you I 
say to all, Watch. 24-37. 

CHAPTER XVII. 14:1-31. 

Scheme to take Jesus; he is anointed at Bethany, and Judas pro- 
poses to betray him ; he partakes of the passover and last supper, 
and predicts the treachery of Judas and denial of Peter. 

1. ! And it was two days before the passover and 
unleavened bread [Tuesday night] ; and the chief priests 
and scribes inquired how they could take him by strata- 
gem, and kill him ; 2 for they said, Not at the feast, lest 
there be a tumult of the people. 1,2. 

2. 3 And [Jesus] being in Bethany at the house of Simon 
the leper, [and] reclining, there came a woman having an 
alabaster vase of myrrh-oil of genuine nard, very costly, 
[and] having broken the alabaster vase, poured it out on 
his head, 4 and some were offended, [saying] to themselves, 
Why was this waste of the myrrh-oil ? 5 This myrrh-oil 
could have been sold for more than 300 denarii [$45], and 
given to the poor ; and they found fault with her. 6 But 
Jesus said, Let her alone ; why do you trouble her ? She 
has done a good work on me. 7 The poor you always 
have with you, and when you will, you can do them good ; 
but me you have not always. 8 She has done what she 
had [to do] ; she has anticipated anointing my body for 
burial. 9 Truly I tell you, Wherever the gospel is preached 
in the whole world, this also which she has done shall be 
told for a memorial of her. 3-9. 

3 10 And Judas the Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to 



chapter xvn. 14:3-31. 43 

the chief priests, to betray him to them. u And hearing, 
they were glad, and promised to give him money; and 
he sought how he might, at a convenient time, betray 
him. 10, ii. 

3. 12 And on the first day of the unleavened bread, when 
they killed the passover, his disciples say to him, Where 
do you wish us to go, and make preparation for you to 
eat the passover ? 13 And he sends two of his disciples 
and says to them, Go into the city, and there shall meet 
you a man bearing a pitcher of water, follow him, 14 and 
where he enters in, say to the master of the house, The 
teacher says, Where is my public room, in which I may 
eat the passover with my disciples ? 15 And he will show 
you a large upper room, furnished [and] ready ; and there 
prepare for us. 16 And the disciples went out, and came 
into the city, and found as he had said to them, and pre- 
pared the passover. 12-16. 

4. 17 And it being evening [Thursday], he comes with the 
twelve, 18 and they reclining and eating, Jesus said, Truly 
I tell you, one of you will betray me, [one] that eats with 
me. 19 They began to be grieved, and say to him, one by 
one, Is it I ? and another, Is it I? 20 And he said to them, It 
is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish. 21 The 
son ot man goes as it is written concerning him ; but woe 
to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed : it were 
well for him if that man had not been born. 17-21. 

5. 22 And as they were eating, taking bread [and] 
blessing, he broke and gave [it] to them, and said, 
Take [it], this is my body ; 23 and taking the cup [and] 
giving thanks, he gave [it] to them, and they all drank of 
it. 24 And he said to them, This is my blood of the 
covenant which is shed for you ; 25 truly I tell you, I will 
drink no more of the product of the vine, till that day 
when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. 22-25. 

{3. 26 And having sung a hymn, they went out to the 



44 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

Mount of Olives. 27 And Jesus says to them, You will 
all fall ; for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the 
sheep shall be scattered abroad ; 28 but after I am raised 
up, I will go before you to Galilee. 29 But Peter said to 
him, If all men fall I will not. 30 And Jesus says to him, 
Truly 1 tell you, to-day, this night before a cock crows 
twice, you will deny me three times. 31 But he said more 
strongly, If it should be necessary for me to die with you, 
I will not deny you. In like manner also said all. 26-31. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 14:32-72. 

Jesus in Gethsemane ; his agony, prayer, betrayal, apprehension, and 
trial before the Sanhedrim. 

1. 32 And they come to a place called Gethsemane; and 
he says to his disciples, Sit here till I pray. 33 And he 
takes Peter and James and John aside with him, and 
began to be astonished and depressed. 34 And he says, My 
soul is very sad till death; remain here and watch. 35 And 
going forward a little, he fell on the earth and prayed, If 
it is possible that the hour may pass from him, 36 and said, 
Abba, father, all things are possible to you ; take this cup 
away from me ; but not what I will, but what you [will]. 

37 And he comes and finds them sleeping, and says to Peter, 
Simon, do you sleep ? Can you not watch one hour ? 

38 Watch and pray that you enter not into trial ; the spirit 
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. 39 And again 
going away, he prayed, saying the same word. 40 And 
returning, he found them again sleeping, for their eyes were 
heavy ; and they knew not what to answer him. 41 And 
he comes the third time, and says, Sleep the rest of the 
time, and take your rest ; [the time to watch] is past, the 
hour has come ; behold, the son of man is betrayed into the 
hands of sinners; 42 arise, let us go ; behold, he that betrays 
me is at hand. 32-42. 



chapter xyhi. 14 : 32-72. 45 

2. 43 And immediately, while he is yet speaking, comes 
Judas the Iscariot, being one of the twelve, and a mul- 
titude, with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and 
scribes and presbyters. u And he that betrays him gave 
them a signal, saying, Whomsoever I kiss, this is he ; take 
him and lead him away safely. 45 And having come, 
going immediately forward, he says to him, Rabbi, rabbi, 
and kissed him ; 46 and they laid hands on him, and took 
him. 47 And one of those that stood by, having drawn a 
sword, smote the servant of the chief priest, and took off 
his ear. 48 And Jesus answering said to them, Have you 
come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to 
take me ? 49 1 was daily with you in the temple teaching, 
and you took me not ; but [it was done], that the scrip- 
tures might be fulfilled. 50 And all left him and fled. 
51 And a certain young man alone followed him, wrapped 
about with linen on his naked [body] ; and the young men 
seize him, 52 but he left the linen, and fled naked from 
them. 43-52. 

3. 53 And they led Jesus away to the chief priest, and 
all the chief priests come together to him, and the pres- 
byters and scribes. 54 And Peter followed him at a dis- 
tance, till [he came] within the chief priest's court ; and 
he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at 
the light. 53, 54. 

4. 55 And the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrim 
sought testimony against Jesus to kill him, and could not 
find it, 56 for many testified falsely against him, but their 
testimonies did not agree. 57 And some stood up and 
testified against him, saying, 58 We heard him say, I will 
destroy this temple made with hand, and in three days I 
will build another temple not made with hand. 59 And 
their testimony did not agree. 60 And the chief priest, 
standing up in the midst, questioned Jesus, saying, Do you 
answer nothing to what these testify against you ? G1 And 



46 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

he was silent, and answered nothing. Again the chief 
priest asked him, and says to him, Are you the Christ, the 
son of the blessed ? 62 And Jesus said, I am, and you shall 
see the son of man sitting on the right hand of the power, 
and coming with the clouds of heaven. 63 And the chief 
priest, rending his clothes, says, What need have we further 
of witnesses ? 64 You have heard the blasphemy ; what is 
your opinion ? And they condemned him to be deserv- 
ing of death. 65 And some began to spit on him, and to 
cover his face, and strike him with the fist, and say 
to him, Prophesy ; and the officers struck him with the 
open hand. 53-65. 

4. 66 And Peter being below in the court, one of the 
chief priest's girls comes, 67 and seeing Peter warming 
himself, having looked on him, says, And you were with 
Jesus the Nazarene. 68 And he denied, saying, I know 
not nor understand what you speak of; and he went out 
into the porch, and a cock crew. 69 And the girl, seeing 
him, began again to say to those that stood by, This is 
one of them. 70 And he again denied [it]. And after a 
little while, those that stood by said to Peter, Truly you 
are of them, for you are a Galilean. 71 But he began to 
curse and swear, I know not this man of whom you speak. 
72 And a second time a cock crew, and Peter was reminded 
of the word, how Jesus said to him, Before a cock crows 
twice, you shall deny me three times ; and casting [him- 
self] down, he wept, gq, 72. 



chapter xis. 15 : 1-41. 47 



CHAPTER XIX. 15:1-41. 

Jesus examined and condemned by Pilate, mocked, scourged, and 
crucified," all on Friday morning. 

1. ] Axd immediately in the morning the chief priests 
holding a council with the presbyters and scribes, and the 
whole Sanhedrim, having bound Jesus, earned him away, 
and delivered him to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, Are 
you king of the Jews ? And he answered and says to 
him, [As] you say. 3 And the chief priests accused him of 
many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, saying, Do 
you answer nothing ? See how many things they allege 
against you. 5 But Jesus yet answered nothing, so that 
Pilate wondered. i-5. 

2. 6 But at a feast he released to them one prisoner, 
whomsoever they demanded. 7 And there was [one] 
called Barabbas, bound with fellow-insurgents, who in a 
sedition had committed a slaughter. 8 And the multitude, 
going up, began to ask [that he would do] as he always 
did to them. 9 And Pilate, answering, says to them, Do 
you wish me to release to you the king of the Jews ? 
10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him 
up on account of envy. n And the chief priests moved 
the multitude [to demand] rather that he should release 
Barabbas to them. 12 And Pilate, answering, said to 
them, What do you wish me to do to him whom you call 
the king of the Jews ? 13 And again they cried, Crucify 
him. 14 But Pilate said to them, [No] ; for what evil has 
he done ? But they cried the more, Crucify him. 15 And 
Pilate, wishing to pacify the multitude, released Barabbas 
to them, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him up to 
be crucified. 6-15. 

3. 16 And the soldiers led him away within the court 
which is the praetorium, and call together the whole 



48 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

regiment [from 600 to 1000]. 17 And they put on him a 
purple [robe], and plaited a crown of thorns [thistles], 
and put it on him, 18 and began to salute him, Health to 
you, king of the Jews, 19 and struck him on the head 
with a reed, and spit on him, and kneeling worshipped 
him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off 
from him the purple [robe], and put on him his own 
clothes, ic-20. 

4. 20 And they lead him out to crucify him, 21 and com- 
pel a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, passing along, coming from 
the country, father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his 
cross ; 22 and bring him to [the] place Golgotha, which is 
interpreted place of a cranium ; 23 and give him wine 
mixed with myrrh ; but he did not take it. 24 And they 
crucify him, and distribute his garments, casting lots for 
them, [to determine] what everyone should take. 25 And 
it was the third hour, [9 A. M.], and they crucify him. 
26 And there was a title of his accusation written, The 

KING OF THE JEWS. 20-26. 

5. 27 And they crucify two robbers with him, one on his 
right hand and the other on his left. 29 And those pass- 
ing by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, 
Alas, he destroys the temple, and builds it in three days ; 
30 Save yourself, and come down from the cross. 31 In like 
manner also the chief priests mocking to each other, with 
the scribes, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. 
32 Let the Christ the king of Israel come down now from 
the cross, that we may see and believe ; and those crucified 
with him reproached him with [the rest]. 27-32. 

6. 33 And when it was the sixth hour [12 M.], there 
was darkness over the whole earth till the ninth hour 
[3 P. M.]. 34 And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud 
voice, Elo'i'^ elo'i, lima sabachthani, which is interpreted, 
God, my God, why have you forsaken me ? 35 And some 
of those that stood by, hearing, said, See, he calls Elijah. 



chapter xx. 15:42. 16: 8. 49 

38 And one ran and filled a sponge with vinegar, and put 
it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, Let [hirn] 
alone ; let us see if Elijah comes to take him down. 37 And 
Jesus, uttering a loud voice, expired ; 38 and the veil of the 
temple was rent in two from top to bottom. 39 And the 
centurion who stood opposite to him, seeing that, having 
cried thus, he expired, said, Truly this man was a son of 

God. 33-39. 

7. 40 And there were women beholding from afar, among 
whom were Mary the Magdalene [Madalian] and Mary 
the [mother] of James the less, and the mother of Joset, 
and Salome, 41 who also followed him when he was in 
Galilee and served him, and many others, who came up 
with him to Jerusalem. 40, 41. 

CHAPTER XX. 15:42. 16:8. 

Jesus honorably buried Friday evening, and his resurrection an- 
nounced on Sunday morning at the tomb. 

1. 42 And it being now evening, since it was a prepara- 
tion which is a pre-Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, an 
honorable counsellor, coming, who also himself was expect- 
ing the kingdom of God, boldly went in to Pilate, and 
asked for the body of Jesus. 44 But Pilate wondered that 
he was already dead, and having called the centurion, 
asked him if he had been dead long. 45 And knowing 
from the centurion, he gave the dead body to Joseph. 
46 And having bought linen, taking [the body] down, he 
wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in* a tomb which was 
cut out of a rock, and rolled a stone against the door of 
the tomb. 47 And Mary the Magdalene and Mary the 
[mother] of Joset beheld where he is laid. 42-47. 

2. 16 : 1. And when the Sabbath was past, Mary the 
Magdalene and Mary the [mother] of James and Salome 

5 



50 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK. 

bought spices to come and anoint him ? 2 And very early 
in the morning on the first day of the week, they come to 
the tomb at sunrise ; 3 and said to themselves, Who will 
roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb ? 
4 And looking up they behold that the stone is rolled away, 
for it was very great. 5 And having come into the tomb, 
they saw a young man sitting, wrapped about with a white 
robe, and they were astonished. 6 And he says to them, 
Fear not ; you seek Jesus, that was crucified ; he is risen, 
he is not here ; see [this is] the place where they laid him. 
7 But go tell his [other] disciples and Peter that he goes 
before you into Galilee ; there shall you see him, as he said 
to you. 8 And going out, they fled from the tomb ; and 
trembling seized them and amazement, and they said 
nothing to any one, for they were afraid. i-8. 



CRITICAL imODUCTIOK 



CHAPTER I, 



The four Gospels ; priority of that according to Mark, and the ordei 
of the whole. 

1. The four Gospels stand alone in the literature of the 
world ; they are not given us to confound human reason, 
but to inform it, and contribute to its available means of 
accomplishing a happy and glorious destiny for the human 
family. These books have much in common ; and all 
relate to Jesus and his doings. His doings are chiefly 
healings and teachings. His healings seem to place him 
in the rank of physicians, and the great number and ex- 
traordinary character of his cures entitle him to be con- 
sidered a physician of great skill and diligence. His 
empowering his disciples to perform cures seems to imply 
that he taught them his therapeutic art, and made them 
physicians of the same school with himself. The Greeks 
had made some progress in medicine at this time, and an 
application of their best methods among the Jews may 
have easily excited astonishment by their simplicity and 
efficiency, and the results have been deemed miraculous. 
If Jesus was a physician among the Jews, treating dis- 
eases in the methods of the Greeks, his cures, with the 
natural exaggerations of ignorance and superstition, cor- 
respond to his profession. 

2. His principal methods of cure are words addressed 
to his patients; but sometimes cures are obtained by touch- 
Col) 



52 



CRITICAL INTRODUCTION". 



ing his garments ; in which case he attributes them to 
the faith of the patient. Faith and expectation do much 
towards promoting cures, and undoubtedly save many. 
Discreet physicians treat their patients with words of 
encouragement and counsel, and directions in respect to 
diet, exercise, habits of cleanliness, the avoidance of what- 
ever is vicious, and the practice of every virtue. All 
these things conduce to health. A physician who makes 
no use of these means of cure, is an impostor, and does 
not deserve a place in the medical profession. Plants and 
minerals have their uses, and ought to be prescribed in 
cases which require them; but improved habits are still 
more necessary, and ought also to be prescribed in cases 
that require them. Jesus appears to have made great and 
happy use ol this part of the materia medica. But besides 
administering to the body, Jesus is a physician of souls, 
and treats them with knowledge, information, and argu- 
ments. Words of instruction, sympathy, and affection 
are perpetually on his lips, and they, too, work wonders. 
This higher branch of the therapeutic art is the main part 
of his profession. His common title is not physician, but 
teacher, and his main inventions are not improved methods 
of treating the sick and healing diseases, but improved 
methods of treating the wicked and recovering sinners to 
righteousness. This was his great mission. 

3. Jesus arose among the Jews in Galilee, was first a 
disciple of John, then proposed a new religion independ- 
ent of all that had preceded, established a school for 
teaching it, made his disciples teachers, went up to Jeru- 
salem to be present at the Jewish passover, was there 
arrested on Thursday night after the paschal supper, was 
tried and condemned, and then crucified at 9 o'clock the 
next morning. He died at 3 in the afternoon, was buried 
at evening, and is reported on the next Sunday morning 
alive from the dead. Many thousands of martyrs have 



CHAPTER I. 53 

died, and are forgotten ; their names and memories have 
perished, and not a trace remains to tell that they ever 
lived or suffered. Some are known only by their names, 
and the fact of their sufferings. In respect to his name 
and sufferings, Jesus is well known ; Alexander the Great 
and Julius Caesar have not a better record. But in many 
other respects, Jesus is the great unknown, and mysteries 
hang around his life, which no lights of modern inquiry 
can penetrate. Ail that can be known concerning him 
ought to be carefully determined, and the bounds of the 
unknown and indeterminable to be distinctly marked and 
duly considered. 

4. The four Gospels have many things in common : they 
all relate to the religion of Jesus, and its origin in his own 
personal instructions. They concur in describing his 
crucifixion as occurring under Pilate. Pontius Pilate was 
Procurator of Judaea 10 years, from A. D. 26 to 37, 
when he was deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul, 
[France], by Caligula, where he put an end to his own 
life in A. D. 41. The bigotry of the Jews at this time 
was intense, and they are well known to have been in a 
high degree unjust and cruel, so that it creates no pre- 
sumption against the piety and morality of a progressive 
teacher, to have been accused and condemned to the cross 
by the Sanhedrim, the highest religious and civil tribunal 
of the nation, and to have had that sentence confirmed 
and executed by Pontius Pilate. Piety and virtue were 
no protection to innovators. No matter how important 
and necessary their innovations might be, — bigotry did not 
want them and would not endure them. All the Gospels 
make Jesus teach his religion as one of intuitive and 
demonstrative evidence, no matter of fluctuating and con- 
tradictory opinions, but of absolute certainty and irre- 
sistible convictions, in opposition to all systems built on 
tradition, assumption, and delusion. The fourth Gospel 
5 * 



54 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

departs widely from the first three ; the first three make 
Jesus a man, the fourth makes him a God ; the first three 
never make him preach himself as more than man, the 
fourth makes him often claim a superhuman character 
either directly or in effect. The first three make him pre- 
dict his second advent and personal reign on earth, the 
fourth ignores both, and makes him give instructions 
inconsistent with them. 

5. The first three Gospels describe Jesus essentially 
alike, and differ mainly in the number of particulars which 
they give us respecting him, not in their quality. But 
they have remarkable peculiarities, which require that 
they should be studied separately, in their true order. It 
is universally conceded that the first three are prior to the 
fourth, and the first two to the third. The evidence of 
this is obvious and irresistible. The true order of the 
first two, and their mutual relations to each other, are less 
obvious, and have generally been mistaken. The Gospel 
according to Matthew has been considered first, and that 
according to Mark second ; but a careful examination of 
the evidence establishes a reverse order of these books. 
The problem is from the books in their present arrange- 
ment, and all we can learn from them, to determine their 
chronologic order and relations. Let us examine the first 
two ; they have much in common, and one of them copies 
from the other, or both copy the common portions from 
a previous work, which has not been extant since they 
were known. 

6. All books containing passages copied from others are 
later than the books which they copy; and if original 
works, and those containing portions copied from them, 
are compared, some marks will generally appear, to in- 
dicate which are the originals, and which copy from the 
others. Independent works seldom have single sentences 
exactly the same, and paragraphs and discourses never. 



CHAPTEE I. 55 

So great are the natural diversities of thought and ex- 
pression, that different writers scarcely ever use the same 
words in the same order for a single line, and never for a 
number of lines. Men instructed in the same schools, 
holding the same faiths, teaching the same sciences and 
arts, and relating the same incidents and facts, use a con- 
stant variety of language and expression, except where 
they copy from each other or from a common original. 
The first two Gosp-els have not only single sentences, but 
extended paragraphs, the same in both, and in many other 
cases only slightly changed. Vfe conclude, therefore, that 
the common portions of these books are copied by both 
from a previous work which perished before these became 
noted in history, or else that they are original in one of 
these books, and copied from it in the other. This allows 
three possible hypotheses. 

I. That both books copy their common parts from a 
previous work, which perished before they are mentioned 
in history. 

II. That the book according to Matthew is the original, 
and that the book according to Mark copies all its com- 
mon parts from it. 

III. That the book according to Mark is the original, 
and that the book according to Matthew copies all its com- 
mon parts from it. 

7. I. Is there an original Gospel from which the common 
portions of the first two were derived, which perished 
before they were noted in history ? Xo. Xone is men- 
tioned by them, none is mentioned by any other book of 
their times ; and the times following, which find and report 
them, find and report no traces of an earlier original from 
which they are derived, but report them as original. 
Besides, if an earlier work had existed from which both 
copied the parts which they have in common, that work 
would have been of superior authority and value to them, 






56 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 



as being earlier, and as being the common authority which 
they both followed, and would have been preserved. 
Christians were under a great responsibility to preserve 
books and documents pertaining to the origin and early 
history of their religion, as soon as they had any w r orth 
preserving, and cannot have been so stupid as to suffer 
them to be lost. The first supposition of an earlier work 
from which the common parts of the first two Gospels are 
copied, is, therefore, inadmissible. There was no such 
work. This conclusion is not conjectural, nor uncertain ; 
it is a clear and irresistible deduction from facts, and must 
command universal assent. We have the most valuable 
and earliest works that were produced, and must judge 
and interpret them accordingly. 

8. II. Is the book according to Matthew the original, 
and that according to Mark the copy with variations ? 
Modified books are always intended to be improvements ; 
and if the book according to Mark copies all its common 
parts from that according to Matthew, it is a modification 
of it intended to improve it. In some respects, judged 
by an absolute standard, it is vastly superior to the other; 
but relatively to the faith of the times that first used both, 
and have handed them along, it is greatly the inferior of 
the two. Its omissions are very remarkable : it omits por- 
tions that are really objectionable, and it also omits the 
gems and pearls of the book. It omits the introduction, 
the Sermon on the Mount, some of the finest parables and 
discourses, and the conclusion. The introduction contains 
an account of the genealogy of Jesus, his supernatural 
conception by a virgin saint from a holy spirit, the visit of 
the Magi, the murder of the innocents, and the sojourn 
of the holy family in Egypt, so that God could call his 
son out of it. Some of these matters, if true, are of great 
importance, especially the supernatural conception. This 
single omission proves the incorrectness of the hypothesis. 



CHAPTER I. 57 

Why did not the later Gospel copy this ? How could 
its author have found Jesus to be a son of a holy spirit 
by a virgin saint and not recognize it, nor give any infor- 
mation of it ? It is impossible ; he cannot have been 
aware of such an incident. 

It omits the Sermon on the Mount, the most compre- 
hensive of all the recorded sermons of Jesus, embracing 
the nine benedictions, the requirement of superior right- 
eousness to that of the scribes and Pharisees, the law 
against calling men hard names, against retaliation, the 
criticisms of the Mosaic code, the command to be perfect, 
the Lord's Prayer, the golden rule, and the direction to 
enter in at the narrow gate, to travel the obstructed way, 
and several other lessons of the greatest importance. If 
the writer was aware of these great lessons as having been 
given by Jesus, it was not right for him to omit them. 
His omission of them is only excusable on the supposition 
of ignorance. We conclude, therefore, that the omission 
of the Sermon on the Mount is another insuperable objec- 
tion to the hypothesis in question. It omits the parable 
of the poisonous darnel, the giving of the keys to Peter, 
the law of church discipline, the parable of the unforgiv- 
ing servant, the commendation of celibacy, the parables of 
the day laborers, the royal feast, and the ten virgins, and 
the account of the final judgment, the setting of a guard 
at the tomb of Jesus, the post-resurrectionary appearances 
of Jesus, and the apostolic commission with the baptismal 
formula. Some of these omissions might occur in a 
later work, without supposing that the author discredited 
them ; but all together they are too numerous and impor- 
tant to be compatible with that supposition. 

The incorrectness of this hypothesis further appears 
from the nature of the additions and variations, several of 
which are incompatible with the supposition of the pri- 
ority of the book according to Matthew, and prove it to 



58 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

be impossible, independently of all other considerations. 
The second hypothesis is therefore inadmissible on two 
accounts : 1. On account of its omissions ; 2. On account 
of its additions and variations. 

9. III. We now come to the third and last hypothesis : 
that the book according to Mark is the original, and that 
the other copies its common parts from it, with variations, 
additions, and a few omissions. This is shown to be cor- 
rect in two ways : 1. It is established by the incorrectness 
of the other two hypotheses : if either of those could be 
true this might be false ; but since both of those are false, 
this must be true. If we had nothing else in its favor, 
therefore, we should be authorized to admit it, as fully 
established. But its correctness appears directly by a 
comparison of the books. On reversing the order of the 
books, and making the same comparisons as before, we 
find nothing of importance omitted, and great and valu- 
able additions made to the work. The genealogy of 
Jesus, tracing his lineage through Joseph his step-father 
to David and Abraham, is insignificant, because, accord- 
ing to Matthew, Jesus is not the son of Joseph, and he 
might have adopted a son of Herod as well. But the 
conception of Jesus by his virgin mother from a holy 
spirit, is a great addition to the theory of Mark, and gives 
promise of an extraordinary character, as when the sons 
of God begat sons of the daughters of men before the 
flood. [Gen. 6 : 4.] Such accounts might be added, and 
are not without precedent ; the legendary annals of 
Greece and Rome have many such cases. So in regard 
•to the visit of the Magi, the sojourn in Egypt, and the 
settlement of the holy family at Nazareth in Galilee. 
Such additions, whether narratives of facts or fictitious, 
are not unnatural or unaccountable. The first book was 
incomplete in giving us nothing concerning the lineage, 
birth, and childhood of Jesus, and these additions, in part, 
supply that great defect. 



CHAPTER I. 59 

The Sermon on the Mount is an invaluable supplement 
to the first Gospel, adding most important articles to the 
new faith, and widening the breach between it and Juda- 
ism to infinity. Among its additions are the nine benedic- 
tions, making the new religionists the light of the world, 
demanding a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes 
and Pharisees, denouncing sins of thought and purpose, 
correcting the Mosiac laws, prohibiting swearing, retal- 
iation, and other immoralities, enjoining love of neighbors 
and enemies, teaching us to aim to be perfect as God is 
perfect, instructing us how to pray, and inculcating 
many specific duties. The additions at the close are the 
most remarkable of all, embracing two post-resurrectionary 
appearances of Jesus, and the apostolic commission, with 
the injunction of baptism and a trinitarian baptismal 
formula. 

The command to disciple all nations, baptizing them, is 
a departure from the methods of Jesus according to Mark, 
in conformity with later usages adopted from Judaism. 
The kingdom of God is changed to the kingdom of 
the heavens, and the gospel of God to the gospel of the 
kingdom. John's baptizing in the Jordan is changed to 
baptizing at the Jordan, and a baptismal formula is intro- 
duced in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Spirit. The declaration of John that one was 
to follow him who would baptize with holy spirit, is sup- 
plemented by the addition of fire, making the baptizer the 
author of rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning, 
in the Scriptures, the usual fire from heaven. The second 
Gospel may supply some additional facts, and doubtless 
does ; but if the first Gospel represents Jesus correctly on 
the points above noted, the second represents him incor- 
rectly, according to a later opinion, which originated after 
his times, and is referred back to him improperly ; and 
some of the novelties introduced by the second Gospel 



60 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

are misconceptions and extravagances which originated 
after the death of Jesus. Many of the additions of the 
second Gospel are improvements of the most elaborate 
kind. This is equally the case with its parables and dis- 
courses, in both of which the second Gospel greatly ex- 
cels. The introduction and conclusion are such as no 
writer could omit, in copying from an earlier work, but 
are not unnatural additions conformable to the Messianic 
theory of those times. 

The priority of the book according to Mark is impor- 
tant to be noted, and a due attention to it will contrib- 
ute much to dispel the mystery that has hitherto hung 
over these books, and to make them intelligible. They 
cannot be successfully resolved on false hypotheses ; these 
have been long and faithfully tried in vain. A true hypothe- 
sis renders a correct solution of them entirely possible, and 
demonstrates itself by the clearness and consistency of its 
results. A false chronologic order of the first two Gospels 
has done great harm in blinding the minds of interpreters, 
and perverting their judgments of the whole series. 

1.0. The foregoing argument establishes the priority 
of the Gospel according to Mark ; that of the first and 
second Gospels to the third, and of the first three to the 
fourth, is shown by a similar method. The third Gospel 
improves on the first two, and the fourth on the first three. 
Each succeeding work improves in some important re- 
spects on all its predecessors, and supplies things which 
the others omitted. Many of the ancients admitted a 
fifth Gospel, according to Nicodemus, which accompanies 
Jesus down to hades, and tells us of his doings there. 

11. The introduction of a false chronologic order of 
these books, and^he inversion of their true relations, mak- 
ing later books earlier, and earlier later, presents insuper- 
able obstacles to their correct interpretation, and confounds 
the human mind in its attempts to resolve them. 



CHAPTER II. 61 

The first Gospel is equally independent of the others, 
and also of the Epistles. But it is not the earliest of the 
books. Its priority is relative to the other Gospels, Reve- 
lation, and such of the Epistles as may be spurious ; the 
genuine Epistles of Paul precede it by several years, and 
Paul and Peter both received their crowns of martyrdom 
before it was written. The extent to which it deviates 
from the system of Paul, shows that it belongs to another 
school of early Christianity, and favors the conclusion .that 
it is, as it professes to be, a Gospel according to Mark, and 
not in all respects according to Paul. 

CHAPTER II. 

According to Mark signifies agreement, not authorship ; how the book 
is according to Mark ; its agreement with Peter, and disagreement 
with Paul ; title of Saint to be abandoned. 

1. The first of all the Gospels is called according to Mark, 
a contemporary of the apostles, but not a personal ac- 
quaintance of Jesus, or a witness of his doings. From the 
earliest times this has been understood to signify o/Mark, 
and has so been interpreted. But this interpretation is 
erroneous ; kata, the Greek preposition, rendered accord- 
ing to, in its title and in the titles of the other Gospels, 
and expressing the relations of the books to the persons 
named in connection with them, signifies, 1. With a geni- 
tive, down from, down to, down under, and down against ; 
2. With an accusative, as in these titles, down through, 
both in respect to space and time, conformity, agreement, 
and manner ; as, I. In Luke 8 : 39, " Proclaiming through- 
out the whole city what Jesus had done." Acts 5 : 15, 
" So that throughout the streets they bring out the sick, 
and put them on little couches and beds, that when Peter 
comes, even his shadow may overshadow some of them. 5 ' 
6 



62 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

8:1, " At that time, there was a great persecution against 
the church at Jerusalem, and all were scattered abroad 
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria." II. Of 
the last sense of conformity, agreement, and manner, we 
have examples as follows : Mark 7:5," Why walk not 
your disciples according to the traditions of the presby- 
ters, but eat bread with common hands ?" 9 : 29, "Accord- 
ing to your faith, be it to you." 23 : 3, " But do not accord- 
ing to their works, for they say and do not." So we have 
according to spirit, according to flesh, according to truth, 
according to God, according to man ; and in the Greek 
classics, according to Pindar, according to Euthydemus, 
according to Heraclitus, &c. In these and many other 
cases kata signifies agreement, and expresses the relation 
of the person or thing named to some other person or 
thing with which it agrees ; but it never signifies au- 
thorship. 

2. Authorship is more than conformity, and more 
than agreement ; the latter is comprehended in the for- 
mer, but not the former in the latter. References and 
quotations may be predicated of authors, as according to 
them, but works which are only according to them, can- 
not be predicated of them as authors. Gospel according 
to Mark, therefore, does not signify Gospel of or by Mark 
as an author. Any man acquainted with Mark's views of 
the new religion might write a Gospel according to him, 
but a Gospel of or by him can only be written by himself. 
Epistles according to Paul would be very different from 
the actual title of Epistles of Paul. The New Testament 
gives us Epistles of men ; but it only gives us Gospels 
according to them. "What does this distinction mean ? 
It surely means something ; and the two modes of expres- 
sion ought not to be confounded. Of men means author- 
ship, real or supposed ; according to men means agree- 
ment, and not authorship. No man ever entitles a book 



CHAPTER II. 63 

according to himself, unless he wishes to be unknown, 
and to have his work attributed to another. A living 
man can give his views and subscribe the views of others, 
but when a man has died and can no longer speak for 
himself, others may speak according to him. These titles, 
according to certain men, belong to all the Gospels, ca- 
nonical and uncanonical. The style seems to have been 
adopted originally without precedent, in the title of the 
first Gospel, and was copied in all the others. With these 
it stops, and is found in no other works. The peculiarity 
of the title indicates that the relation is peculiar, and in 
correspondence with it. Milton's poems are not poems 
according to Milton, nor Shakspeare's according to Shak- 
speare. If Mark had left a book, it would have been 
entitled a book of Mark, and not a book according to him : 
this book according to Mark, therefore, cannot be Mark's, 
and must be the work of some other author. It appears 
without introduction, and is neither subscribed nor ac- 
knowledged by any writer whatever. 

3. Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea, in Palestine, from 314 
to 340, reports Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, in 
the early part of the second Christian century, as report- 
ing that John the presbyter said as follows : " Mark, being 
the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately what he men- 
tioned, not in the order in which things were said or done 
by Christ ; for he neither heard the Lord nor followed 
with him ; but afterwards [followed] Peter, who gave in- 
structions as there was need, but not as making an orderly 
arrangement of the Lord's oracles." Eusebius, Eccle. Hist. 
B. III. c. 39. This account is not from Papias direct, but 
second-hand, through Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, in Gaul 
(France), from 177 to 202 A. D. The presbyter John, 
whose opinion Papias reports, is not pretended to be the 
apostle John, and is clearly distinguished from him by 
Papias, Irenaeus, and Eusebius. He was one of the post- 



64 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

apostolic worthies, and is so represented by Papias, and 
so reported by Irenseus and Eusebius. What authority 
he had for his opinion, which is handed along with so much 
care, we are not informed. It is very evident from the 
book, that he had no good authority for it. The book 
contains no reminiscences of Peter, nor a single remark 
suitable to have come from him as a witness testifying of 
what he had seen and known. The disciples of Socrates 
tell us of their teacher in terms suitable for such relations, 
but no such telling appears in this book. We conclude, 
therefore, that John the presbyter, like Papias, was a 
weak man, an incompetent judge of books, and entirely 
destitute of valid information on the subject. The weak 
and ignorant ought not to be flush of their opinions. 
The simplicity with which this absurd opinion is handed 
along, and paraded before the people for the confirmation 
of their faith in the Christian Scriptures, is amazing, and 
shows that blindness in part did not happen to Israel 
alone. If sensible and strong-minded men can accept 
such groundless assumptions for reliable testimonies, it is 
time that the practical logic of Christendom was revised 
and the divine art of reasoning better understood. A 
new schoolmaster ought to go abroad. The other pre- 
tended testimonies in favor of the authorship of this book 
by Mark, on being analyzed, are resolved into superficial 
opinions, supported by no evidence, and equally with this 
in contradiction of all the evidence afforded by the book 
on the subject. The book is anonymous ; it asserts no 
authorship, and claims no respect but that which is due 
to its matter. The evidence of the book is decisive 
against the supposition of its authorship either by Mark 
or Peter ; it wants items of information which either 
Mark or Peter could easily have supplied, and which 
nothing but invincible ignorance on the part of the 
author could justify him in omitting. 



CHAPTER n. 65 

4. Assertions of authorship by books are never to be 
received without proof; and with no such assertion, proof 
is still more demanded to make any assumption on the 
subject credible. To make the sacred books exceptions 
to this rule, and assume authorships without evidence, is 
a violation of the most certain laws of truth. The man 
who does it ought to be deceived ; his method is in con- 
tempt of that prudence and caution which are impera- 
tively demanded of all rational creatures, in all depart- 
ments of reasoning. The laws of reasoning are the laws 
of God. 

There is much more in this case than the mere absence 
of assertion and the accompanying evidence ; the asser- 
tion of conformity is counter evidence ; it precludes au- 
thorship, and is incompatible with it. According to 
Mark, makes Mark the standard of comparison and 
agreement : if he had been more than this, more should 
have been asserted ; and if he had been the author, there 
would have been no occasion for such an assertion. 
Authors may give their names, or withhold them, accord- 
ing to the nature and objects of their works. If they tes- 
tify to facts and wish their statements to be received, 
they must give their names, and the evidences on which 
they rely ; if they write moral tales, poems, or works of 
argument and discussion, they may withhold their names. 
It is often expedient to publish such works anonymously, 
and many works have gained celebrity without the name 
of the author, which would have been less successful 
with it. 

5. It is not necessarily dishonest to publish anonymously 
or over assumed names, but the arbitrary assignment of 
works to authors, whether subscribed or not, is dishonest ; 
it has a thousand chances of being erroneous, where it 
has one of being correct, and the assignment of this book 
to Mark is demonstrably erroneous. If Mark had written 

6* 



66 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

the book as a narrative of facts, besides giving his name 
he ought also to have given much other valuable infor- 
mation, which is withheld ; his own personal observations 
and reminiscences of the apostles would have been of in- 
finite value ; but we have none of them. These are the 
main things demanded of witnesses, and honest witnesses 
never withhold them ; but this book withholds them 
entirely. The book, therefore, is not a book of evidence, 
but of argument. 

6. Many practise a degree of presumption in their 
reasoning on the Scriptures which is highly criminal. 
Instead of giving time and attention to see what they 
teach, and comparing the premises and conclusions, to 
verify the correctness of their judgments, they accept 
common opinions, without examination, and reject those 
not generally accepted, without attending to the evidences 
by which they are claimed to be supported. Reasoning 
in the same way, Mohammedans will follow Mohammed 
forever, and Pagans be forever Pagans. This is the 
method of persisting in errors indefinitely, and hindering 
indefinitely the acceptance of truth. Is God pleased 
with such contempt of his own laws ? We think 
not. It is easy to float with the current, and hard to re- 
sist it ; but it is possible to stem the tide of common opinion 
when it is wrong, and rise to truths that transcend it. It 
takes little time or labor to beg questions, or support 
opinions with assertions, but it often takes much of both 
to resolve questions correctly, and reach determinate and 
valuable results. Knowledge is often obtained with 
difficulty, and at great expense ; but it is worth all it costs, 
and compensations are provided for all the sacrifices 
required in gaining it. God is its patron, and pays his 
debts. The author of the first Gospel withheld his name, 
and the world never obtained it. He is among its great 
unknown. 






CHAPTER II. 67 

7. The book claims in its general title to be according 
to Mark : is that claim supported by evidence ? and if so, 
what is it ? The agreement claimed is not certified nor 
proved by the book ; it must therefore be supported, if 
supported at all, by external evidence. The book appears 
at an early period, and was written earlier than it appears ; 
the friends of Mark find no fault with it as misrepresent- 
ing his views and methods, but it commands universal 
acceptance and favor. This would not have been the 
case if it had not been correct, and therefore proves its 
correctness. 

8. Paul glories in not having borrowed his scheme of 
Christianity from older apostles. Whatever it was, he 
had it from God direct, and not from men. Gal. 1 : 15- 
2 : 10. Objects of intuition and demonstration are given 
us from God direct. Statements conformable to intui- 
tions and demonstrations are truths, and all assumptions 
that contradict them are untruths. 

Mark for a short time accompanied Barnabas and Paul, 
apparently in early life, as a servant, not as a companion 
and equal ; and for reasons unexplained left them at 
Pamphylia, before completing his term of service, and 
returned to Jerusalem. Acts 13 : 5, 13. This was in 
A. D. 46. The next that we hear of him is six years 
later, in A. D. 52, after the abandonment of circumcision 
by the apostles and church at Jerusalem. Paul and 
Barnabas having performed their first missionary tour 
with great success, after an indefinite interval, in which 
they attended and assisted at the council at Jerusalem, 
A. D. 50, planned a second labor of the kind ; Barnabas 
wished to take Mark with them, but Paul would not; 
and there was a sharpness, so that not only Mark was left 
benind, but Paul and Barnabas separated, henceforth to 
occupy different fields. Barnabas, taking Mark, sailed to 
Cyprus his native country, and Paul, selecting Silas, went 



68 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

through Syria and Cilicia, then through Asia Minor to 
Ephesus, after that to Greece ; and his labors are com- 
memorated in Acts, and in his own Epistles. This is the 
last we hear of Barnabas in the New Testament ; he is 
commemorated by an Epistle in the style and method of 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, probably the production of 
the next age ; it gives us no information of the supposed 
author, and has no acknowledgment by him. From 
Cyprus Mark probably went to Egypt, which was easily 
reached by sea, the same year, and introduced the new 
religion at Alexandria, where he is reported to have 
labored for a series of years, terminating with 62 A. D. 
This allows him ten years at Alexandria, and makes his 
labors there contemporary with those of Paul in Asia 
Minor and Greece, with his imprisonment two years at 
Caesarea, and his first year at Rome. 

Eusebius says, Eccl. Hist. B. II. c. 16: Mark, they say, 
was first sent to Egypt to preach the Gospel which he also 
composed; and founded the church at Alexandria on it. 
Jerome says, De Vir. ill. c. 8, that Mark died in Egypt 
in the eighth year of Nero (62 A. D.), and was suc- 
ceeded by Anianus. 

9. The separation of Paul and Barnabas was a grave 
matter, and did not take place for nothing. The cause 
assigned in Acts 15 : 36-39, is very unsatisfactory. It is 
that Mark had left them on a former occasion, and went 
not with them to the work. That he left them without 
reason is not said, and does not appear. He was a free 
man, and probably had a right to judge what was best for 
him to do at the time. He may have judged wrong ; 
it is human to err, but it is godlike to forgive. The 
religion of Jesus teaches forgiveness as a great duty, on 
no account to be neglected. It seems as though Mark 
might have been forgiven if he erred ; Paul is generally 
magnanimous, and does not magnify mole-hills into moun- 



CHAPTER II. 69 

tains. It is difficult to believe that he was inexorable 
towards Mark for nothing, and we cannot account for his 
conduct without supposing that he was influenced by con- 
siderations that do not- appear. The unsatisfactory na- 
ture of the account is suspicious, and indicates that some- 
thing is kept back. It is by no means certain that the 
cause of the separation was entirely personal, and con- 
sisted only in the fact that Mark left them at Pamphylia. 
Other and higher considerations may have concurred to 
produce it, of which the author of Acts knew nothing, 
or chose not to speak. 

It is not uncommon for superficial and concurrent 
reasons to be assigned for actions, and deeper controlling 
ones to be suppressed. The early Christians had great 
trouble from their discordant views ; the author of Acts 
is preeminently Pauline, and it may not have comported 
with his ideas of expediency to allow any dissent from 
Paul's methods to appear. Open ruptures are always dis- 
graceful, and were generally avoided. Paul and Peter 
were fast friends, but the diversity of opinion and prac- 
tice between them was sufficient to be made an occasion 
of division in the church at Corinth, founded by Paul, 
some refusing to accept the methods and views of Paul, 
and accepting those of Peter as preferable. Paul corrects 
this, not by excommunicating Peter and his followers, but 
by making his church broad enough to comprehend all. 
1 Cor. 1 : 10-16. His letter on the subject was written 
from Ephesus in 57 A. D., when, perhaps, a longer ex- 
perience, and more thorough mastery of the principles of 
Christianity, had made him wiser than in 52. Mark made 
full proof of his ministry and achieved great successes in 
Egypt. Paul's Epistles indicate obscurely, that in later 
life he fraternized cordially with Mark, and that the ill 
feeling which caused the separation between these great 
and good men in A. D. 52, was replaced with entire 
friendship in 62. 



70 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

10. A further proof that the book conforms to Mark, is 
its disagreement with Paul. Paul received water baptism 
and the Eucharist ; the first Gospel attributes neither to 
Jesus, and reports him as instituting no religious rites. It 
records no baptisms by Jesus or his disciples, and admits 
none but that with holy spirit, which it sets in opposition 
to water baptism by John. Mark 1:8. It treats of the 
various baptisms of the Jews, as according to command- 
ments and traditions of men, opposes them to the duties 
of justice and mercy which are enjoined by divine law, 
and insists on the latter as on no account to be neglected, 
but disparages the former as useless and injurious. A 
baptist, in relating the teachings of Mark 7 : 1-23, should 
have made an exception in favor of the baptism insti- 
tuted by Jesus, if there had been any such. The dis- 
paragement of the Jewish baptisms in this passage is broad 
and sweeping, and applies to all possible baptisms, and 
all other religious ceremonies. Jesus is a minister of the 
eternal laws of God ; these he every where commends, 
and all the temporizing expedients of men he treats as 
superfluous, obtrusive, and burdensome. The second and 
third Gospels agree with the first in representing Jesus as 
an anti-baptist, with the exception that the second admits 
the injunction to baptize, with the apostolic commission 
to disciple all nations. Matt. 28 : 19. " Go and disciple 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and 
of the son, and of the holy spirit." The command to 
disciple all nations is comprehensible ; it recognizes the 
religion of Jesus as adapted to benefit all nations. Science 
and art are equally for all ; but the command to baptize, 
and to baptize in the name of three persons, is repugnant 
to all that precedes, and is manifestly fictitious. Jesus 
gave no such injunction ; it contradicts all the teachings 
of his life, and is incompatible with the most essential 
principles of his system. The Jews baptized the Gentiles 






CHAPTER II. 71 

on receiving them to Judaism, and this is borrowed from 
them and attributed to Jesus by a fiction. Jesus is made 
to receive only Jews to his community, but is never said 
to have excluded others. The principles of his system 
required him to invite all to receive it, and to accept all 
on equal terms, whether Jews or Greeks. He appears to 
have proposed it first to the Jews, because they were at 
hand, and were most likely to give it a favorable recep- 
tion. He cannot have wished to confine it to the Jews, 
but must, from the first moment that the new religion 
broke in on his view, have seen that it was equally for all 
nations, and have desired its speediest and widest dif- 
fusion. 

11. The fourth Gospel attributes baptism to Jesus, as fol- 
lows : John 3 : 22-24. " After these things Jesus and his 
disciples went into the land of Judasa, and there he abode 
with them, and baptized ; and John was baptizing at 
iEnon, near Salim, because there were many waters there, 
and they came and were baptized ; for John was not yet 
cast into prison." 4 : 1-3. " When, therefore, the Lord 
heard that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus makes and 
baptizes more disciples than John— though Jesus himself 
baptized not but his disciples — he left Judaea and went 
away again into Galilee." 

12. The first three Gospels find no such visit to Judaea 
as that here described, and do not make Jesus commence 
preaching till John is cast into prison. Mark 1 : 14-30. 
Matt. 4 : 12-17. Luke 4 : 16-29. This visit to Judaea is 
therefore fictitious, if the first two Gospels are correct on 
this part of the life of Jesus. The presumption is in their 
favor. John 4 : 1, 2, is notable for what it admits, that 
Jesus baptized not, and for what it asserts, that his dis- 
ciples did. After the death of Jesus, his disciples may 
have adopted baptism and the Eucharist, but it is very 
evident that they did not before. Had the disciples of 



72 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

Jesus baptized, some traces of it would have appeared in 
the first three Gospels, and it would have been highly in- 
cumbent on the writers to let them appear. But, instead 
of this, we have in Mark 7 : 1-23 the most sweeping dis- 
paragement of baptisms as traditions of men, while the 
commandments of God are insisted upon as relating to 
moral duties. This disparagement of baptism is copied 
in Matt. 15 : 1-20 with abridgment, impairing some- 
what the force of the argument, but preserving the prin- 
ciple and the antithesis between ceremonies and duties. 
The last supper is related in the first two Gospels as a 
narrative of what was done, without any accompanying 
injunction or intimation that it should ever be repeated 
as a religious ceremony. 

13. Acts 2 : 38 describes Peter as preaching on the 
day of Pentecost, " Change your minds, and be baptized, 
every one of you, for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall 
receive the gift of the holy spirit ;" and in 2 : 41, 42, we 
are told, that " those who received his word were both 
baptized and added on that day to the church about 3,000 
souls, and continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apos- 
tles and the communion, the breaking of bread and pray- 
ers." How the writer obtained his information about the 
preaching of Peter on this occasion, he does not tell us ; 
the preaching is that of John the Baptist, not of Jesus. 
John the Baptist preached the baptism of a change of mind, 
for the forgiveness of sins ; this writer makes Peter do the 
same. But Jesus introduced a new religion, unknown to 
John, which had no baptism for the forgiveness of sins 
but practical righteousness. Change of mind belonged 
to the schemes of both, baptism only to that of John. 
Hence the name of Baptist, by which he was discriminated 
from Jesus, who was not a Baptist, but repudiated bap- 
tism, equally with other ceremonies. Before attaining his 
higher light, Jesus was a Baptist, and disciple of John, as 



CHAPTER II. 73 

he had previously been, by education, a common disciple 
of Moses and the prophets. Jesus neither repeats the 
ceremonies of Moses nor John, but insists on doing right, 
and observing the eternal laws of justice and mercy. 
Besides confounding the doctrines of Jesus with those of 
John, Acts supplements them with the Eucharist, or feast 
of his death, and finds both in customary use on the fif- 
tieth day after his crucifixion. Those added to the 
church were baptized — about 3000 souls. Souls are not 
capable of baptism, but the word is here used in a general 
sense for persons ; it may have been transferred from a 
document in which it was used otherwise, and signified 
only conversion, in conformity with Mark 1 : 8 and 
1 Pet. 3 : 21. 

14. Retrogressive steps are easily taken in conformity 
with common superstitions, and societies like individuals, 
are capable of outrunning all ordinary calculations, in 
their backward and downward movements; but so radical 
a retrogression as this, from the methods of Jesus, ought 
to take the apostles and brothers more than fifty days. 

Philip baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch by the way, after 
converting him during a carriage-ride, apparently of a 
short distance. Acts 8 : 26-40. Saul, on recovering his 
sight, arises and is baptized by Ananias, a disciple at Da- 
mascus. Acts 9 : 18. Peter directs Cornelius and his 
friends to be baptized, but does not condescend to per- 
form the ablution himself (Acts 10 : 47, 48) ; and the 
Philippian jailer, with all his, is baptized in the jail at 
Philippi, after having washed Paul and Silas from their 
stripes. Acts 16 : 33. 

Baptisms are of constant occurrence in Acts, from the 
great day of Pentecost onwards ; but we never meet them 
in the first three Gospels. When and how they com- 
menced is unknown ; they did not commence with Jesus, 
nor originate in any precept by him, and do not comport 
7 



74 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

with his doctrines on the subject. Acts abounds in fic- 
titious incidents, and the account of the baptism of 3000 
souls, if understood of their bodies, on the fiftieth day 
from the crucifixion, appears to be one of them. It is too 
great and radical a departure from the methods of Jesus 
to be possible in fifty days ; fifty years would be more 
reasonable ; five or ten might inaugurate the change. It 
must have required deliberation and discussion, no ac- 
counts of which appear. The baptisms by Paul in Acts 
are entirely credible, for he was a Baptist ; but that Peter 
baptized, and that he commenced baptizing on the fiftieth 
day after the crucifixion, requires proof, and is not credible 
on the unsupported assertion of this book. 

The Eucharist was probably introduced contempora- 
neously with baptism. It seems to have originated in the 
supper of the society when it was a common stock con- 
cern, and practised to some extent a community of goods, 
as commemorated in Acts 2 : 43-6 : 7. 

15. It has been supposed by many, that the apostles 
and their coadjutors had definite instructions from God on 
all religious subjects, and that any considerable diversity 
of principle or practice among them was impossible. It 
has also been supposed that they were incapable of great 
mistakes. These suppositions are gratuitous, and have 
no foundation in facts. The question of circumcision 
according to Acts, distracted the church for a time, and 
made much trouble. The council at Jerusalem rejected 
it on general principles, and Paul opposes it on the same 
in his Epistles. Our accounts of the rejection of circum- 
cision are slight and incomplete ; on the origin of baptism 
and the eucharist we have nothing. Perhaps we need 
nothing ; it is no great matter how they originated ; it is 
enough to know that they are no part of the institutions 
of Jesus, or of personal righteousness, and belong to 
those carnal ordinances against which early Christianity 



CHAPTEE II. 75 

achieved its greatest victories. As far as appears from 
the first three Gospels, and the Epistles of Paul and 
Peter, the school of Mark and Peter was non-ceremonial, 
having neither baptism nor the eucharist, and the school 
of Paul baptist and eucharistic. 

16. The agreement between the Epistles of Peter and 
the first Gospel is remarkable on account of their dis- 
agreement with Paul and Acts, and shows that the 
authors belonged to the same school. It also shows a 
considerable but not unreasonable diversity of schools on 
another question besides circumcision. If circumcision 
might be abandoned, all formalism might ; and w T hen the 
axe was brought to the root and stem of the tree which 
has borne such bitter fruit, and shut out so much of the 
blessed daylight from the eye of mortals, it must have 
been difficult for the old radicals not to cut it down. 
But against this all partialists.and expediency-men would 
object, as not sufficiently respectful to old superstitions. 
The primary school of Jesus, as represented by Peter and 
the first Gospel, said, Cut down the tree, dig up its roots, 
burn up its branches, make an end of it, and let the day- 
light forget its dismal and pestilential shade. But Paul 
and his school, as they became all things to all men, by 
all means to gain some, did not see it necessary or expe- 
dient to go quite so far. They said, Give up other Jew- 
ish forms, but bajDtism and the passover preserve ; convert 
the latter into the eucharist, and keep it. Peter's scheme 
is less fully developed in the two Epistles ascribed to him, 
than Paul's in the more numerous, and in some cases 
longer and more elaborate Epistles ascribed to him. The 
school of Paul triumphed for the time, not necessarily as 
being the most correct ; it was the most fortunate in its 
master and positions. Paul was a host ; by him alone it 
secured Rome, Greece, Asia Minor, and probably Antioch, 
the capital of Syria, Tarsus, and Caesarea* From these 



76 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

positions it easily commanded the world, and made rival- 
ship and competition elsewhere impossible. 

These two schools co-existed for a time, and were 
carried along together, partly in different fields, and 
sometimes in the same. The success of the ceremonialists 
adds nothing to the evidence in their favor. The church 
was fallible, and often erred ; it may have done so in the 
adoption of these rites. The non-ceremonialism of Jesus 
is according to the higher law, and Christianity must yet 
return to it. Nothing should be accounted righteousness 
which is not righteousness, nor sin which is not sin. 
Washing for cleanliness is very well, and the neglect of 
it criminal ; so of washing for health ; but washing for 
religious purposes is substituting arbitrary appointments 
of men for the eternal commandments of God. Instead 
of being a help to virtue, it is a diversion from it, and 
hinders its culture. 

17. In later times Gospel according to Mark was 
changed to Gospel according to Saint Mark, and Saint is 
still used in many editions of the New Testament, both as a 
title of Mark and the other sacred writers. The canoniza- 
tion of saints is similar to that of sacred books ; it is an 
institution of mediaeval ages, and a natural accompani- 
ment of the other early superstitions. Christ-worship 
began with the apostles in the first Christian century; 
first by making Jesus the Jewish Messiah, and then a god, 
and increased till it reached its highest point at the 
council of Nice, under Constantine, 324 A. D., and has 
been generally accepted by Christians since. Saint-wor- 
ship soon followed, beginning at the tombs of.the martyrs, 
and had a vigorous growth ; Mary rivals her distinguished 
son in the adoration of millions, and many other saints 
occupy a position in the Christian pantheon second only 
to the first class gods of the ancient Greeks, and high at 
the side of the Supreme. 



CHAPTER II. 77 

Saint-worship, however, has but little favor with Prot- 
estants, and the association of creature-worship with 
that of the Supreme seems likely to be one day aban- 
doned. It must either be abandoned or greatly improv- 
ed. Jesus inculcated only the worship of the Supreme 
as sovereign ruler, and that of creatures as brothers, 
separated, it may be, from us by vast distances, but equally 
dependent with ourselves on the Eternal, and infinitely 
below him. 

18. Saint is a title of great honor, and designates the 
holy in all worlds, and of all ranks and orders. The 
canonization of saints is a public declaration in favor of 
certain persons, that they belong to this order, and in- 
vests them with the title. The same act also gives them 
a day. There are not days enough in the year to accom- 
modate all the saints, so that many are obliged to have 
the same day. The church of Rome assumed first the 
office of canonists in regard to the sacred books, and 
then in regard to the saints ; and its authority is entitled 
to equal respect in regard to both. It is as competent 
and has as legitimate authority to make men saints as it 
has to make books sacred. There is no human authority 
to do either, except as each particular church finds it 
necessary to discriminate between its members and others, 
and to decide what books shall be read in its public meet- 
ings. Beyond these all pretended church authorities are 
usurpations, which ought to be resisted. Societies derive 
their powers from the members, and can only have what 
the members confer ; the authorities and rulers of societies 
derive their powers from the societies, and can only have 
what they confer. Individuals are the types and foun- 
tains of all human sovereignties, and neither churches, 
states, nor families can have any powers which do not 

primarily belong to them. Individuals may determine 

7 * 



78 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

what books they will use, and what saints, if any, they 
will worship ; but they have no authority to prescribe to 
others on either of these subjects. 



CHAPTER III. 

Relations of the title and sub-title of the book ; evangelion, evan- 
gelize, and evangelist. 

1. Evangelion (Gospel) according to Mark is the gen- 
eral title of the book, followed by a sub-title. The other 
Gospels, canonical and uncanonical, have only the general 
title. Why does this alone have a sub-title ? The sub- 
title, Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, son of God, 
appears to have been prefixed first when the book was 
written, and signifies Beginning of the religion of Jesus. 
This would naturally be abridged in common use, which 
is always sparing of words, and referred to, as the Gospel 
of Jesus ; and if the work accorded with any known 
school, in distinction from others, would be called from 
the head of the school or from distinguished teachers with 
whom it was known to agree, provided it was left indef- 
inite by the author. The other Gospels have only the 
general title which accords with the hypothesis of their 
later composition, when the general title, having been 
prefixed to the first, had eclipsed the sub-title from which 
it was derived, and came to be generally used. This for- 
mula is followed in all the titles of the later Gospels, 
varying only in the authorities with which they are made 
to agree. 

2. Evangelion, translated Gospel, signifies, 1. the reward 
of good news; 2. A thank offering for good news; 3. The 
religion of Jesus ; 4. A book describing the beginning of 
the religion of Jesus. The word is found after the titles, 
in both of which it occurs ; In Mark 1:14, " Jesus 



chapter in. 79 

came preaching the gospel of God;" v. 15, "Change 
your minds and believe in the gospel ; " 13 : 10. " And the 
gospel must first be preached in all nations." 14 : 9, " Truly 
I tell, wherever this gospel is preached in all the world, 
what she has done shall be told." The second Gospel, in 
three cases, qualifies this word by the kingdom, and uses 
it in Matt. 4 : 23, " And he went about all Galilee teach- 
ing in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the 
kingdom ; " 9 : 35, " And Jesus went about all the cities 
and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom." 24 : 14, " And the gospel of 
the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a 
testimony to all nations." 26 : 13, " Truly I tell you, 
wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, 
what she has done shall be told." In this last case the 
word is used without qualification, as in the first Gospel. 
The gospel of Jesus according to the first Gospel, is not 
gospel of the kingdom, but gospel of God. This is very 
imperfectly represented by gospel of the kingdom. Gos- 
pel of God was a great truth, gospel of the kingdom a 
great delusion. Jesus, according to Mark, preached only 
the gospel of God. The two formulas are not equivalent ; 
they represent different ideas and different systems. Gos- 
pel of God is the religion of God, and gospel of the 
kingdom, good news of the near ajDproach of a Messianic 
kingdom, which never came. It is right to take the 
higher and better formula, as the real formula of Jesus. 
His rejection of Judaism required him to reject the Jew- 
ish Messianic expectations. According to the first three 
Gospels, he did not suffer himself to be proclaimed the 
Messiah ; the statement that he accepted and commended 
the confession of Peter, appears to be a fiction. Peter's 
confession was not a fact ; Jesus was not the Jewish Mes- 
siah, and did not offer himself to the nation as a king, but 
as a teacher. Peter may have mistaken him for the Mes- 






80 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION". 

siah, but it is to be presumed that Jesus in no way coun- 
tenanced that mistake. He must have known that he 
was not the Messiah, and there is no proof that he at- 
tempted to impose on the world by assuming that char- 
acter, or consenting to the mistakes of others in favor of 
that assumption. His customary title was teacher, not 
king, and he mingled with men, not as a ruler, but as one 
that served. 

Evangelion is derived, through evangelos, bringing 
good news, from eu, well, and angello, to announce : an- 
gello is derived from angel, a news-bringer. 

3. From evangelion we have the denominative verb 
evangel-ize, to make an evangelion. The termination ize 
of denominative verbs, signifies to make, as in aggrandize, 
to make grand, Christianize, to make Christian, civilize, to 
make civil, to allegorize, to make allegoric, &c. 

From evangelion, in the sense of gospel, evangelize sig- 
nifies to make a gospel ; from evangelion in the sense of 
good news, it signifies to announce good news, as in 
Acts 10 : 36, which word (God) sent to the sons of Israel, 
announcing peace by Jesus Christ. Luke 1:19, "I am 
Gabriel, who stand before God, and I am sent to speak to 
you, and tell you this good news" Luke 8:1, " And he 
went in order through city and village, preaching and 
announcing the kingdom of God." 

4. From evangelize we also have evangelist, which sig- 
nifies, 1. An author of an evangelion \ 2. A preacher; ac- 
cording to the significations of the verb from which it is 
derived. Evangelist occurs but three times in the New 
Testament, and always signifies the author of an evan- 
gelion. I. Acts 21 : 8, "And going out the next day we 
came to Caesarea, and entering into the house of Philip 
the evangelist, being one of the seven [evangelists,] re- 
mained with him." Grammatically, evangelists, from the 
context, is the word understood after seven, and not 



CHAPTER III. 81 

deacons ; but seven evangelists not being mentioned else- 
where, and Philip being one of the seven deacons appoint- 
ed immediately after the large accessions to the church 
at Jerusalem (Acts 6:5), interpreters have generally 
supplied deacons. This is wrong. The visit of Paul and 
his company to Philip the evangelist at Caesarea was in 
A. D. 58, and the appointment of the seven deacons at Je- 
rusalem in 28, 30 years before. Identity of names and 
numbers proves nothing in favor of the common assump- 
tion. Philip the evangelist of Caesarea may have been 
the same person as Philip the deacon of Jerusalem ; the 
former is reported to have preached the Gospel at Sama- 
ria with success ; after which he returned to Jerusalem, 
went south of it, and instructed and baptized the eunuch 
of Ethiopia. Acts 8 : 5-40. He may have subsequently 
settled at Caesarea, and have become an evangelist. One 
of the uncanonical Gospels is ascribed to Philip the dea- 
con of Jerusalem, but it is more probable that Philip the 
evangelist of Caesarea was the author of the Gospel 
according to Matthew. 

5. II. Eph. 4 : 11, 12, "And gave both apostles, proph- 
ets, and evangelists, and pastors and teachers, for the 
perfecting of the saints in the work of the deaconship, 
and in building up the body of Christ." Evangelists is 
here used in the plural number, showing that a plurality 
of them were known at the time when this Epistle was 
written, and that they were considered contemporaries of 
Paul. These evangelists were not preachers ; the ancient 
preachers after the apostles were pastors, teachers, pres- 
byters, and bishops. Evangelists were not prophets ; the 
name stands after prophets, and before pastors and teach- 
ers. The prophets delivered prophecies, and the evangel- 
ists, evangelions, gospels. This passage brings evangelions, 
gospels into special relations to prophecies as an independ- 
ent and peculiar class of productions. Like prophecies 



82 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

they may have been oral or written ; but they were prob- 
ably w r ritten. 

6. III. 2 Tim. 4:5, " Be sober among all, endure evil, 
make a work of an evangelist, perform fully your deacon- 
ship." A part of this is rendered in the common version, 
" Do the work of an evangelist." The original is the 
word used in the phrases, to make manifest, to make 
whole, to make good, to make straight, to make fishers of 
men, to make a king, to make a poem, book, or work of 
any kind. In connections requiring that sense it also 
signifies to do, as, Which of the two did the will of the 
father ? Whatever you ask I will do ; What good work 
shall I do ? &c. The sense of this verb, in 2 Tim. 4 : 5, 
depends upon what the work of an evangelist is in this 
connection. It is generally supposed to be preaching; 
but this is erroneous ; preaching is enjoined on Timothy, 
in verse 2, as follows: "Preach the word, stand up in 
season, out of season; rebuke, reprove, exhort, with all 
long suffering and teaching." The writer cannot be made 
guilty of the tautology of repeating this injunction in 
verse 5, without necessity. If another meaning of the 
work of an evangelist is possible, it must be received, 
and that of preaching excluded. We conclude, there- 
fore, that its accredited and certain meaning of author 
of a Gospel must be received, and the other supposed 
meaning rejected. The work of evangelists was that 
of writing Gospels, as that of prophets was of writing 
prophecies, and not of ordinary preaching, which was 
the work of apostles, deacons, presbyters, bishops, pas- 
tors, and teachers. 

To make or do a work of an evangelist, therefore, is to 
write, or publish otherwise, an account of the religion of 
Jesus after the manner of the evangelists. Acts, the Epis- 
tle to the Ephesians, and 2 Timothy are of uncertain age 
and authorship. The latter two are attributed to Paul, 



CHAPTER III. 83 

are written in his name, and represent the faith and prac- 
tice of Christians near the close of Paul's life, and from 
that time to 100 A. D. The only office they allow to 
evangelists, as we have seen, is that of composing and 
writing Gospels. This Was not the work of apostles, 
prophets, pastors, nor teachers ; and when it ceased, evan- 
gelists disappear. Jesus instituted apostles, whose office 
according to the Gospel accounts, was not to witness and 
proclaim his doings and glorify him, as the great object of 
human regard, but to learn and teach his doctrines and 
practise his methods. After the crucifixion, according to 
Acts 6: 1-6, the church, at the suggestion of the apostles, 
appointed seven deacons, who appear to be the first order 
of ministers instituted after the apostles. Some suppose 
that the Christian community at Jerusalem was divided 
at this time into seven societies. The deacons were 
assistant stewards, to aid the apostles in administering the 
church property and providing for the public tables of 
the societies, and also assistant ministers to aid them in 
preaching the doctrines and practice of the new religion. 
Two of them, Stephen and Philip, are distinguished 
preachers. The next that we hear is, that churches are 
established in many cities, in all of which presbyters are 
ordained ; and later still, we find presbyters or bishops, 
presbyters and deacons (Acts 11 : 30 ; 14 : 23 ; 15 : 2-23, &c), 
and immediately after the apostolic age, bishops, pres- 
byters, and deacons, in the churches generally. Evan- 
gelists were like prophets, few and transient. 

7. The first application of evangelion, gospel, to signify 
the religion of Jesus, is referred in this book to Jesus him- 
self. I. Mark 1 : 14, 15, " And after John was set aside, 
came Jesus, preaching the gospel of God, saying, The 
time is completed, and the kingdom of God is at hand ; 
change your minds, and believe in the gospel." John 
made no use of the w r ord ; the use of it is original with 



84 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

Jesus. It is introduced in this narrative without defini- 
tion, but the context restricts it to the religion preached 
by Jesus. This was the gospel of his time, and he 
demanded faith in it, on the most substantial grounds of 
reason and evidence. II. Mark 13 : 10, "And the gospel 
must first be preached to all nations." The religion of 
Jesus was preached to all nations throughout the Roman 
empire, and in some directions beyond its bounds, before 
the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70. The gospel of 
this passage is evidently the same as in the previous one 
— the religion of Jesus. III. Mark 14 : 9, " Truly I tell 
you that wherever the gospel is preached in all the world, 
what she has done shall be told for a memorial of her." 
In this passage, as in the two preceding, gospel signifies 
the religion of Jesus. These are all the instances of the 
use of the word in this book, after its titles. Its relations 
are, Gospel according to Mark ; Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
son of God ; Gospel of God ; Gospel which Jesus preaches 
from the commencement of his ministry, and Gospel 
which was to be preached to all nations before the 
destruction of Jerusalem. These qualifications all concur 
in making the gospel of Jesus the religion of Jesus. 

There is much in a good name, and the name of good 
news given to his new religion by Jesus, may have con- 
tributed in no small degree to its success. It was well, 
calculated to conciliate respect and love, and to command 
attention. Who listens not with interest to good news ? 
Who neglects to read it? And who feels not the power 
of a name having connected with it the most agreeable 
of all human associations ? 

The religion of Jesus was well entitled to be called 
good news ; it released the Jews from the intolerable 
burdens and oppressions of Judaism, and the Gentiles 
from those of idolatry and polytheism ; it shed light on 
those in darkness, ministered comfort to the sorrowing, 



CHAPTER IV. 85 

and gave the weary rest, and the troubled peace. It 
delivered the human race from the burdens and delusions 
of its early ages, not by any supposed commercial value 
of the blood of Jesus, nor on account of substitutionary 
sufferings, but by his abrogation of oppressive institutions, 
and his proclamations of- universal liberty and independ- 
ence in behalf of all men, subjecting them only to the 
laws of the infinite, and taking those laws, as they are 
found by the experience and discoveries of ages, to be in 
reality and effect, and not accepting blindly and stupidly 
the false readings and absurd interpretations put upon 
them, and the miserable substitutes and shams proposed 
in their names by rude and illiterate ages. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Language, country, age and character of the Gospel. 

1. The first Gospel is written in Greek, the native lan- 
guage of the Hellenic Jews at Alexandria, Antioch, Tar- 
sus, Ca3sarea, and other Greek cities. Acts is devoted 
mainly to Paul and Pauline Christianity, and if Alexan- 
dria, under Mark, had rivalled Antioch and Caesarea as a 
field of religious triumphs, it would not have comported 
with the apparent design of Acts to mention it. Eusebius 
reports Papias through Irenasus as saying that the Gos- 
pel according to Mark was written at Rome. The tra- 
dition from Papias, being incorrect in respect to the 
author, is not to be trusted in respect to the place where 
the book was written. There is no internal evidence in 
favor of Rome, nor has it any special adaptations for that 
field. Mark being assigned to Egypt, as the field of his 
Christian labors, it is to be presumed that this book was 
written at Alexandria, by a disciple of Mark. The early 
Christians had no definite information either in regard to 
8 



86 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

its author or age. They had to determine both from in- 
ternal evidence, as we do, and reasoned on the subject 
with extreme looseness. Books, like men, are apt to have 
some marks of their age. The first Gospel makes Jesus 
predict a line of events from his time, 28 A. D., to the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, with great accuracy and 
precision. There were wars, earthquakes, famines, pes- 
tilences, and*tumults ; there were false prophets and false 
Christs, and Jerusalem was besieged and taken by the 
Romans, after the inhabitants had endured unparalleled 
hardships and sufferings. The temple was destroyed, and 
the land ploughed up where it stood. The temple had 
once been destroyed before, and was liable to be destroyed 
again. Jesus may have foretold its destruction ; a man 
of great sagacity and discernment, as Jesus was, may 
have foreseen that the* Jews would ultimately be goaded 
into rebellion, and then crushed and destroyed. The 
apparent probability was, that in the event of rebellion 
and subjugation, the temple would be spared; but another 
destiny was possible, and circumstances unknown to us 
may have indicated it to Jesus as probable. Had the 
prediction stopped here, it might have been attributed to 
Jesus. 

2. Three suppositions are possible in respect to it. 
I. That Jesus, with his accurate, discriminating judgment, 
foresaw the calamities which the Jews were bringing on 
themselves, without any superhuman powers or super- 
natural aid ; II. That he evinced in this foresight super- 
human powers ; III. That the account of these predic- 
tions does not relate the actual words of Jesus, but such 
statements on the subject as the writer thought suitable 
for him, in A. D. 70 or 71, when all things belonging to the 
first part of the prediction had transpired. Fortunately for 
the correct interpretation of this prophecy, the writer pro- 
ceeds to report Jesus as saying, that immediately after 



CHAPTER IV. 87 

these events, the sun shall be darkened, the moon with- 
draw her light, the stars fall from heaven, and the son of 
man come in the clouds, with great power and glory, 
when he shall send forth his angels and gather his elect 
from the four winds ; from the end of earth to the 
end of heaven. All this is to come to pass in that 
generation. Mark 13 : 30, 31. This part of the pro- 
phecy is entirely false ; the events predicted should 
have transpired within the next 40 years, as the previous 
events did in the previous 40 ; but nothing of the kind 
occurs ; no darkening of the sun, no withdrawal of the 
moon, no unusual commotion in the heavens, no appear- 
ance of the son of man in the clouds, and no sending 
abroad of angels to gather together the elect from the 
four winds, from the end of earth to the end of heaven. 
Why is the correspondence of the predictions with facts 
perfect from 28 to 70, 42 years, and the rest entirely 
erroneous and extravagant ? Was Jesus so correct in his 
discernment of what was to be for the first 40 years after 
his death, and so misled by the superstitions and de- 
lusions of the Jews, as actually to expect to come in the 
manner indicated, directly after the close of that period ? 
We think not. Jesus w^as too sober and reasonable on 
other subjects, and too thoroughly emancipated from Jew- 
ish prejudices in other respects, to allow us to suppose 
that he was the subject of this great delusion. After his 
death others may have expected him to return and fulfil 
Jewish prophecies ; but previous to that event, this ex- 
pectation is not likely to have been entertained either by 
him or others. The later of these predictions were not 
accomplished at the time set for them ; 1800 years more 
have passed, and they are not yet accomplished. Some 
are still looking for their accomplishment, but most un- 
reasonably. Their non-fulfilment at the time set for them 
shows that they were the conjectures of a fallible man, 
and not divine oracles. 



88 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

3. The sworn defenders of old delusions plead that the 
latter part of this prophecy is obscure and difficult to be 
understood, and invent figurative senses to supersede the 
literal mistakes with something that cannot be proved 
untrue. But science despises such shifts. The passage 
is not obscure ; it is clear and explicit, and easily under- 
stood. Jesus is made to describe his coming in the clouds 
in the most definite terms. Nothing is doubtful or am- 
biguous, and no chance is provided for retreat or equiv- 
ocation. Jesus must come at the time, and in the manner 
specified, or else be made a false prophet. The general 
judgment at this time, is an addition of the second Gos- 
pel ; in this no mention appears of the wicked, the book 
assembles only the elect ; the second Gospel assembles 
and disposes of both elect and reprobate. Such is the 
natural progress of ideas and the natural growth of fiction. 

4. On a careful examination of this prophecy and a 
comparison of it with history, we conclude as follows : 
I. That the latter part of it is entirely incorrect. II. That 
a prediction by Jesus of his second coming in the clouds 
of heaven with the holy angels evinces a reliance on the 
Hebrew sacred books, which cannot have belonged to him, 
and which would have totally disqualified him for found- 
ing the new religion. III. The prediction did not emanate 
from Jesus, but is the product of A. D. 70, 42 years after 
his death, and is ascribed to Jesus by a fiction of the 
author. Jesus doubtless foresaw and declared the ult- 
imate destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and an- 
ticipated the complete success and glory of his religion. 
Good men are continually making such discoveries and 
declarations. Any man that understands the true religion 
knows that it must one day triumph over all opposition 
and fill the world. 

5. Jesus may have foretold the triumph and glory of 
his religion in terms which that credulous and super- 



CHAPTER IV. 89 

stitious generation applied to the messianic advent and 
kingdom predicted in the Jewish scriptures, but it cannot 
be admitted without evidence, that he was so misled as 
to entertain such expectations, or intentionally encourage 
them. The passage cannot be solved by referring it to 
Jesus, but it is quite resolvable on the supposition that 
the entire production is a fiction of the author, attributed 
to Jesus, in agreement with the faith entertained respect- 
ing him in A. D. 70. Thus interpreted Mark 13 : 1-37 is 
a key to the book, and determines its character and date. 
It cannot have been written before 70 A. D. nor long- 
after it. The author, unlike Jesus, was a subject of the 
delusions of Judaism, and misinterpreted the future from 
its books. Jesus was emancipated from those delusions, 
otherwise he could not have taken the first step in found- 
ing his religion. 

6. The doctrine of the second advent of Jesus appears 
in 1 Pet. 1 : 7, 13. " That the trial of your faith may be 
found to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of 
Jesus Christ; — wherefore girding up the loins of your 
mind, watching, hope to the end for the grace to be 
brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 4 : 7. 
" The end of all things is at hand." A great mistake. 
2 Pet. 3 : 1-13. " This second epistle, beloved, I now 
write to you, in which I stir up your clear mind by re- 
membrance, to remember the words before spoken by the 
holy prophets, and the commandment of the apostles of 
your Lord and Savior, you knowing this, that mockers 
shall come in the last days with mocking, walking after 
their own [evil] desires, and saying, Where is the promise 
of his coming ? For since the fathers slept, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
For this escapes them willing [to be deceived], that the 
heavens were of old ; and the earth was formed out of 
water by water, by the word of God, by which [heavens] 
8* 



90 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

the then world being deluged with water was destroyed, 
but the present heavens and the earth are treasured up 
for his word, kept for a day of judgment, and destruction 
of impious men. But let not this one thing escape you 
beloved, that one day with Kurios, is as a thousand years 
and a thousand years as one day. Kurios is not slow 
[to fulfil] his promise as some men account [him the 
subject] of slowness, but is long suffering towards you 
not- willing that any should be destroyed, but [wishing] 
all to come to a change of mind. But the day of Kurios 
will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away 
with a rushing noise, and the elements be melted with 
intense heat, and the earth and works in it, be burned up. 
All these things being [destined] to be dissolved thus, 
Avhat kind of persons ought you to be in holy aspirations 
and pieties, looking forward and hastening to the coming 
of the day of God, by which the heavens shall be burned 
up and dissolved, and the elements be melted with intense 
heat. But we look for new heavens and a new earth 
according to his promise, in [both of] w^hich dwells 
righteousness." 

7. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 15 ; 22-25, as follows: "For as 
all in Adam die, so all in Christ shall be made alive but 
each in his own order, Christ a first fruit, then the [dis- 
ciples] of Christ at his coming, after that is the end [of 
the world] when he shall give up the kingdom to the God 
and father, when he shall abolish every rule and every 
authority and power. For he must reign until he puts 
all enemies under his feet. The last enemy death is left 
unemployed ; for he put all things under his feet [Ps. 8 : 7 
(6) 110 : 1], but when he says all things are put under 
[his feet], it clearly excepts him that put all things under 
him ; then the son himself also shall be subject to him 
that subjected all things to him, that God may be all 
[things] in all." 1 Thess. 4 : 15-17 ; " For this we tell 



CHAPTER IV. 91 

you by word of Kurios, that we the living who remain 
over to the corning of the Lord, shall not precede those 
who have slept ; for the Lord himself with a shout, with 
voice of archangel, and with trumpet of God, shall de- 
scend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first ; 
afterwards we the living who remain over, shall be caught 
up together with them, in clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air, and so shall always be with the Lord." The res- 
urrection is a doctrine of Jesus, but this modification of 
it belongs entirely to First Thessalonians ; Jesus teaches 
nothing of the kind. The author reports it as by the 
word of Kurios, by which he seems to mean the Old 
Testament Scriptures ; no word of Jesus is pretended to 
teach it. 2 Thess. 2 : 3-12, modifies slightly the second 
advent doctrine of First Thessalonians, and requests the 
brothers not to be disturbed by it. 

8. The second advent doctrine of Revelation is later 
and more mature, and belongs to the middle of the second 
Christian century. The assumed time of the book is 
A. D. 68, but the date of its composition is nearly a hundred 
years later. The second advent doctrine figures largely 
in apostolic and post-apostolic Christianity, but the first 
Gospel shows clearly that it is imputed to Jesus by a 
fiction of the author, and leaves us without any proof 
that it belongs to him. In this showing the second and 
third Gospels concur ; the fourth ignores the second ad- 
vent theory entirely, and finds no instruction of Jesus in 
relation to it. 

9. Second Thessalonians obtained its second advent 
doctrine from the reputed word of Kurios ; Paul, in 
1 Cor. 15 : 3-58, is much less extravagant, and follows in 
some important respects the analogy of nature. He makes 
his doctrine of the resurrection what he had received, ap- 
parently from the Jewish Scriptures. He says Jesus " was 
raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and 



92 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

appeared to Cephas [not Peter], then to the twelve. 
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers 
once for all, most of whom remain till now, but some 
have also slept. Then he appeared to James, then to all 
the apostles, and last of all, as to an untimely birth, he 
appeared also to me." 1 Cor. 15 : 4-8. 

He then concludes, that if Christ is raised, there is a 
resurrection of the other dead. He claims no peculiarity 
attaching to the resurrection of Christ. Jesus is reported 
to have taught a general resurrection in his debate with 
the Sadducees, Mark 12 : 18-27. 1 Cor. 15 : 3-58, teaches 
the same. Jesus is reported to have taught his doctrine 
on the subject from Moses ; First Corinthians teaches it 
from the same, and supports it from the assumed resurrec- 
tion of Jesus. It is a doctrine of natural religion, and 
has no necessary connection with second adventism, or 
with any historic events. It is a pity to have its credit 
imperilled by arbitrary and accidental associations. By 
the same law that we survive sleep we must survive death ; 
death is a species of sleep, and sleep of death. The mat- 
ter of the soul is as imperishable as that of the body, and 
there is no analogy in the universe which justifies us in 
assuming its extinction. It may change its localities and 
positions, but it cannot relinquish its being, and with its 
being follow its vast capabilities, embracing those of con- 
scious action and enjoyment. 

10. The author of this book wrought in secret, and 
told not his left hand what his right hand did ; he labored 
not for the praise of men, but for their good, and for the 
approbation of God. We seek in vain for his name and 
history and the circumstances in which his labor was per- 
formed. He may have written amid sorrows and tears ; 
he can hardly have been a stranger to suffering ; it is the 
common school of all high philosophy and religion ; but 
no biographer tells his story, and no poet sings his deeds. 



CHAPTER IV. 93 

He is a voice from the past, one of the gentle and sig- 
nificant voices of the Eternal, and his words live. How 
long he survived the completion of his work, and what 
success it attained in his day, we are not informed. 
Doubtless he watched it with a jealous and loving eye, 
as it commenced its mission. He may have seen it joined 
by the second and third Gospels, well pleased with their 
valuable additions to his great idea, and grieved at their 
mistakes. His work soared aloft like an eagle, and built 
its nest and nursed its young on high. Its gifted author 
is generally ignored, and the honors due him have long 
been given to the master of the school in which he served 
and taught. How must the spirits of those mighty dead 
have felt, as they met and conversed together in the 
higher spheres, at the misapprehensions of men in respect 
to their works ! 

11. The book was dedicated by the church as a mon- 
ument to the honor of a departed teacher, and head per- 
haps of a Christian school, who otherwise would have had 
no fit memorial. It is one of the grandest monuments of 
time, far exceeding the Pyramids of Egypt, by the side 
of which some of its lines may have been written, and is 
destined to be read and respected when they shall have 
passed away. The first Gospel will never die, nor cease 
to be one of the landmarks of human history and prog- 
ress. The delusions which have been nursed upon it are 
incidental and temporary, the growth of darkness and 
ignorance, and of childish simplicity ; they will pass away, 
and give place to better and nobler views. Correctly in- 
terpreted the book will be far better and more useful 
than it has been hitherto, and will confer untold benefits, 
as yet unattained. 

12. If Mark inspired the author with his great idea by 
his eloquence and power as a gospel preacher, he per- 
formed for the world a service like that of a rhapsodist 



94 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 



that may have inspired Homer with the conception of the 
Iliad, or Virgil with that of the JEneid, but vastly greater. 
Men sometimes receive inspirations which do not cease 
with them, but are transmitted to others, and handed 
along, growing deeper, broader, and more impetuous as 
they proceed, till at last they pour themselves like a 
cataract on the world in a deluge of divine influence and 
power. Sometimes the mighty thought of a progressive 
mind struggles for ages before it sweeps away the barriers 
of ignorance and prejudice and gains general acceptance. 

13. He is a silly critic who supposes that Homer re- 
garded his gods and goddesses as real beings. They 
were creations of his own mind, made according to the 
mythic doctrines of his time and country, and used as 
the machinery of his great poem. He did not play on 
the mighty organ of the Iliad and touch all its keys, con- 
ceding reality to its fancies. His superhuman agents are 
fictions, regarded as such by himself, and always so under- 
stood by intelligent Greeks. To understand this poem 
otherwise is to make it the greatest absurdity. Scarcely 
less silly is that interpretation of the first Gospel, the 
original of all the Iliads of Jesus, which does not allow 
its author the intelligence of Homer, and admit his cre- 
ations to be equally fictitious. 

14. Homer's genius was enkindled by the siege and fall 
of Troy; that of the author of the first Gospel, by the 
labors and death of Jesus. Homer describes the siege of 
Troy, with its incidents of trial, its oft renewed conflicts, 
and the long tried patience and courage of its assailants 
and defenders, and paints the characters of men in lines 
of light and truth, which make his book a commentary 
on human nature, and commend it to the love and ad- 
miration of the ages. Sorrows and joys, virtues and vices, 
vast sacrifices, and stupendous acts of heroism, are rep- 
resented in his pages, gilded with the noblest creations of 






CHAPTER IV. 95 

genius, and the tale rendered infinitely attractive and 
affecting by the simplicity and accuracy with which every 
object is depicted. The Saint of Alexandria relates the 
labors and trials of Jesus as an independent and original 
thinker, assailing the traditionary despotisms and delu- 
sions of ages, asserting the unity, omnipresence, power, 
and goodness of God, and the completeness and perfec- 
tion of his laws and government, and proclaiming to all 
men free thought, only limited by the divine laws of 
thought, and free action, only restrained and directed by 
the divine laws of virtue and happiness. This is his 
religion, and is proposed as the joy and salvation of the 
world. Men and demons take the field against the great 
reformer. Unappalled by human and infernal opposition, 
Jesus organizes his school of religious knowledge, per- 
forms his amazing cures, presents to the people his mas- 
terly arguments, and assails the despotisms of the early 
religionists in favor of universal freedom, good will, and 
happiness. Troy falls after a contest of ten years, never 
to rise ; Jesus falls at the end of the first year of his 
undertaking, possibly the second, and leaves his great 
work only begun, to be resumed and carried forward by 
feebler hands. He dies a spotless martyr to the most 
ennobling and inspiriting truths that ever broke on the 
eye of mortals. Two days he reposes in the tomb, and 
his disciples mourn their irreparable loss : on the third 
eventful morn, a young man at the tomb announces him 
risen from the dead, and the faith of Christendom en- 
thrones him in glory. It is a great error to make him a 
god, or pay him divine honors, and evinces the character- 
istic weakness of humanity. He may far better hold his 
true place as the noblest of men ; his apotheosis is a sad 
blunder, his beatification is not amiss. 

15. This magnificent story was given to the world in 
silence, none observing the hand that ministered it, and 



96 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

proved the most illustrious birth of time. Its immediate 
products were, first, the second and third canonical Gos- 
pels, and in the next generation the fourth, with a fifth 
according to Nicodemus, more than two hundred years 
later, together with several other uncanonical works, 
most of which have perished. The later canonical gos- 
pels make great improvement on this in several respects, 
and contribute valuable additions to religious knowledge 
and illustration ; but they also fall into great errors and 
mistakes, which this book avoids. The author of the first 
Gospel was slightly supplied with facts, incidents, names, 
and dates, and frames his account accordingly in the most 
general terms. Those that come after him, supply but 
few of these great deficiencies, showing clearly that they 
were irrecoverably lost before the Gospels began to be 
produced. 

16. This book is a dramatic representation of Jesus 
and his labors, struggling against men and demons, to 
establish his religion. As a true and good man, the 
author had no motive to misrepresent either Jesus or his 
works, but he was bound to represent both to the best 
advantage, and for this purpose avails himself freely of 
fiction. The book was generally received as true, and 
became a power and authority. Properly interpreted it 
is true, and is freighted with the weightiest and most 
important truths within the knowledge of man. The 
disciples of the new religion accepted it as a correct 
delineation of their principles and methods, and an honor- 
able tribute to the memory of Jesus. It delineates the 
highest piety in the humblest conditions, and under the 
greatest trials, and illustrates the eternal laws of virtue 
and happiness. With the light of these it outshines the 
Iliad of Homer and the great tragedians of Greece, and 
becomes the general favorite of all nations to which it is 
made known. The Saint of Alexandria bears away the 



CHAPTER IV. 97 

palm from Moses and the prophets, and exceeds the mas- 
ters of all preceding ages in representing the light and 
love of God, and the capabilities of man for divine cul- 
ture, as taught in the school and life of Jesus. The book 
is a model of simplicity and clearness in statement, of 
directness and' conclusiveness in argument, of accuracy 
and precision in definition, and of supreme devotion to 
the right and good. Jesus is not a soldier conquering 
with the sword, nor a sophist confounding the world 
with the refinements and contradictions of a false and in- 
tricate philosophy and deceptive logic, but a servant and 
minister of God, and under him, of truth and goodness. 
He is an intimate with the Supreme, basks in his sunlight, 
and reflects it, investing all things with divine beauty. 

17. The immortal Phidias, contrary to the wishes and 
sense of propriety of the Greeks, attached his name to 
the statues of the gods, which were creations of his 
chisel ; but the saint of Alexandria wrought his divine 
conception of Jesus, and gave it to the world without his 
name, as independent of any connection with mortal as if 
it had been a work of the Supreme, and had fallen from 
heaven, to be the comfort and joy of men, and the pledge 
of their eternal rest. 

18. Egypt was not unfit to be the place of this great 
production ; there were the pyramids, monuments of the 
childhood of the race, built centuries anterior to the epoch 
of the deluge ; there was the labyrinth the type of all 
childish mystery, and thither the genius of Greek science 
and art had retired from the shades of the Academy and 
the walks of the Lycaeum, to find more auspicious seats in 
the land of Mizraim and of Ham. The halls of the 
Ptolemies were silent, and the voice of music and merri- 
ment was hushed in their palaces, while a Roman sentinel 
secured public order and quietude, but the sublime light 
of science and divine art was not quenched, it still glowed 

9 



98 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

in the hearts of Alexandrian scholars, the most sublime 
of all the monuments of the past, and the most porten- 
tous and inspiring of all the prophecies of the future. 

19. Hither Mark, discarded by Paul, came a missionary 
of God and of Jesus, and planted the divine seed of the 
new religion. It found a good soil, and grew and filled 
the land. Having accomplished his work, Mark left 
Egypt in A. D. 62, when Paul had been a year in Prison 
at Rome, and returned perhaps to die in" his native 
Cyprus. Paul is now reconciled to .him, and mentions 
him with respect in his letters. He dies and goes to his 
reward, but the good seed sown by him at Alexandria 
bears the illustrious fruit of this volume, and gives the 
world the first of the great evangelic instruments for its 
further teaching and culture. 

20. God called his Hebrew son out of Egypt by Moses, 
to plant Egyptian arts, disengaged from Egyptian des- 
potism, on the heights of Carmel, and Zion, at the foot of 
Lebanon, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and 
in the vales of Cinnereth, and the Jordan ; and now he 
sends the religion of Jesus to that early home of art, to 
take new lessons and then address herself to regenerating 
the world, and flooding it with divine light. Moses is 
reputed to have brought to the service of the Hebrews 
whatever art graced the royal palaces of Memphis, moth- 
er of civilization, and the author of this book was no 
doubt master of whatever learning and culture belonged 
to Alexandria, the Greek successor and rival of Memphis. 
Evangelic instrument is the title given to the Gospels by 
Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, and is a 
monument of the earliest judgment of Christians in regard 
to their characters. They would not have been called 
instruments if they had been considered narratives of 
unmixed facts, and this representation fell into disuse, 
when a knowledge of the true character of the books was 
lost, and they came to be considered as purely historic. 



CHAPTER V. 99 

CHAPTER V. 

Poetic and fictitious elements in the first Gospel, and historic 
defects. 

1. The Gospels are generally considered to be nar- 
ratives of unmixed facts, without errors, mistakes, fic- 
titious additions, or exaggerations ; and also without ill 
judged and injurious omissions of what ought to appear. 
This perfect historic character is assumed as a fact not to 
be questioned, and is made a fundamental principle of in- 
terpretation. No errors, mistakes, or injurious deficiencies 
are allowed to appear, and the most violent modes of in- 
terpretation are adopted to harmonize fictions with facts 
and reconcile contradictions. 

2. Histories are narratives of facts ; they describe 
actions and events in the order in which they occur, with 
their relations as causes and effects, and as sources of 
good and evil. They differ from annals, poems, and tales ; 
annals relate actions neither as causes nor effects, but 
simply as events ; and refer them to their respective years, 
and other periods of time. Poems are mostly measured 
compositions in verse or rhyme relating more or less to 
facts, but making free use of fiction ; they are sometimes 
without definite measures. Tales, from tell, are stories 
more or less fictitious, and many of them like the parables 
of the New Testament, designed for moral effect and the 
inculcation of lessons otherwise likely to be neglected or 
resisted. Histories describe events in respect to their 
mutual relations generally, and annals only in respect to 
their times ; both are chronologic, taking note of time, 
history not less than annals ; but histories exceed annals in 
taking note of other relations and accidents besides time. 
Histories report observations and authorities, and care- 
fully ascertain and establish facts. 



100 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 



3. The first Gospel has neither the form of annals nor 
histories ; it neither relates events according to their times, 
notes their other and higher relations, nor establishes 
their reality. It relates no observations, and cites no 
authorities, and its assumptions are as destitute of 
evidence as if none was required. History distinguishes 
the certain from the uncertain, supports doubtful positions, 
and assigns reasons for its conclusions ; the author of the 
first Gospel relates every thing as certain, finds nothing 
doubtful or difficult, and leaves his facts, many of which 
are most extraordinary, without any support. The me- 
thods of history are essential to history, and cannot be 
dispensed with ; they are demanded by the laws of the 
human mind. The first Gospel departs entirely from 
these, and is therefore not historic. It has not the form, 
and pursues not the method of history. There is no such 
history in the whole range of literature ; its method is 
that of tales and poems, in which the facts are of no 
consequence, and may be either real or assumed at 
pleasure. 

4. History, like testimony, requires the name of the 
author to accompany his work, in order to save the world 
from imposition. Who ever wrote a history and with- 
held his name ? The anonymous character of the first 
Gospel confirms its non-historic character. If the author 
had written it as a history, he would have accompanied it 
with his name. 

5. The first Gospel wants many items of information 
that belong to history, and that no intelligent historian 
could omit. It tells us -of Jesus, but tells not under what 
Roman emperor he lived, who was chief priest, who was 
at the head of the Jewish schools of religion and philos- 
ophy ; and mentions none of the distinguished men of 
his time except John the Baptist and Herod [Antipasj. 
It gives no account of Jesus' birth, parentage, and educa- 



: 



CHAPTER V. 101 

tion ; tells us not what studies he pursued, what schools 
and teachers he enjoyed, and what acquisitions he made, 
and says nothing of any travels which he may have per- 
formed to qualify himself for his work. For aught that 
appears, he may have visited Greece, Rome, and Egypt, 
and searched the world through, for its highest informa- 
tion of men and things ; and he may never have extended 
his journeys beyond Jerusalem and the annual festivals of 
his nation ; but the latter is not likely. The names of his 
mother and brothers are mentioned incidentally, and his 
sisters referred to, without any mention of their names. 
Mark 6 : 3. Tradition tells us that he had two sisters, 
Esther and Thamar. Four brothers are mentioned, James, 
Joset, Judas, and Simon. The book has no definite note 
of time ; it begins with the preaching of John the Bap- 
tist, relates incidentally his imprisonment and death, and 
describes Jesus as preaching and proposing his religion, 
from the time of John's imprisonment till on his first visit 
to Jerusalem, at the feast of the passover, he was arrested, 
tried, condemned, and crucified, in the short space of 12 
hours, and closes abruptly with an announcement of his 
resurrection, by a young man clothed in white, at his 
tomb. Pontius Pilate,, the procurator, is only mentioned 
by his surname : in a history his complete name should 
have been given. 

6. Chief priests are mentioned in the plural number, 
Mark 14 : 43 ; 15 : 1, 30. There never was but one chief 
priest. A historian might as well introduce the presidents 
of the United States as an official class. Ex-presidents 
are not presidents, and ex-chief priests were not chief 
priests. The part given to the chief priests is fictitious; 
there was no such official class at Jerusalem ; one was 
chief priest, and the rest were only priests, with no con- 
siderable authority. Besides being fictitious, the mention 
of chief priests and the part assigned them in this book 



102 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

proves that the author was imperfectly informed in re- 
spect to the hierarchy at Jerusalem, and could not have 
known it from observation. The substitution of chief 
priests for a single chief priest, is an exaggeration com- 
mon in fictitious accounts, which aim to make the most 
possible of the objects described. A witness that is pres- 
ent will describe a trial with exactness ; if it is before a 
single judge he will say so ; one not present, will not 
unfrequently give you the judges for the judge, and other 
things in proportion. 

7. There is a similar inaccuracy in describing the Lake 
of Galilee and its craft. It is called a sea and its craft 
are called ships. This lake is twelve miles long and five 
broad, and communicates with the dead sea by the Jordan. 
Josephus calls it a lake, and no historian can call it more. 
To call it a sea is an exaggeration. This small lake had 
boats, but not ships ; but in this narrative its larger boats 
are always called ships This is an exaggeration anal- 
ogous to that of calling the lake a sea. Both are unsuit- 
able to history. The style of the book, in respect to these 
objects is not that of an inquisitive and painstaking his- 
torian, with his line and rule always in hand, but of a 
free-thinking poet and author of moral tales, with whom 
facts are of no consequence ; fictions suit his purposes as 
well, and he freely supplements and varies his facts with 
them. 

8. Jesus is made to perform impossibilities and absur- 
dities, only paralleled by the pretensions of the ancient 
Magi, and other daring and unprincipled impostors. He 
casts out demons by a word, he touches a leper with his 
hand, saying, " Be cleansed," and immediately his leprosy 
departs and he is cleansed ; he says to a paralytic, " Your 
sins are forgiven you," and then commands him to arise 
and take up his bed and go [to his house], and he arises 
and goes ; he says to a man with a withered hand, " Stretch 



CHAPTER V. 103 

out your hand," and he stretched it out and is restored ; 
he casts out a legion of demons from a maniac and sends 
them into a herd of swine ; he cures a hemorrhage by a 
touch of his garments from the patient ; lie raises a dead 
girl by taking her hand and saying in Chaldee, " Girl, 
arise ; " he feeds thousands with a few loaves of bread 
and other limited supplies ; he expels a demon from the 
daughter of a Syro-Phcenician woman at a distance with- 
out seeing her ; he receives a visit from Moses and Elijah 
on a high mountain, near Cassarea Philippi, and is trans- 
figured ; he cures Bartirnaeus of blindness by saying, 
" Go, your faith has saved you ; " he curses an innocent 
and flourishing fig tree and it withers the next morning ; 
he quiets a storm with a command, "Be silent, be still ;" 
and at another time, walks on the sea, to come to the 
relief of his disciples, when they were troubled with 
adverse winds, and when he reaches them, the wind sub- 
sides. 

9. This list is truly formidable, and is made much more 
so by the additions of the later gospels. It seems to teach 
that Jesus far exceeded the Magi and other impostors in 
his pretensions and claims of supernatural powers, but it 
really teaches no such thing. It only shows the fictitious 
character of the work, and is to be interpreted as an 
exaggeration of the real doings of Jesus. All his doings 
were remarkable, exciting the wonder and astonishment 
of that rude and superstitious age, and this grotesque ex- 
aggeration of them is their monument. All these doings 
may be facts, but allowance must be made for the exagger- 
ations with which they are described, and they must not 
be allowed to transcend the possible and reasonable. 
Neither the impossible nor unreasonable can be true. 
These exaggerations are not suitable to history, but are 
quite proper for a fiction in those times. The author may 
have narrated them as innocently as Homer does his 



104 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

fictions, and have expected to be understood as well. He 
had no reason to suppose that mankind would be simple 
enough to mistake them for facts, nor would the mistake 
be possible under ordinary circumstances. The delusions 
which these exaggerations have nursed are owing to an 
absurd system of interpretation, which makes strong men 
weak, and wise men foolish ; which converts men into 
children, and deprives them of the benefits and safeguards 
of common sense in their interpretation of the Scriptures, 
where, more than any where else in the whole field of 
inquiry, such helps are required, and cannot be dispensed 
with. 

The historic character of the book is maintained in the 
interest of Supernaturalism, of which it is a great support, 
and the forlorn hope ; if this prop fails, Supernaturalism, 
so long the idol of the world's childhood, will have to be 
abandoned for less childish views of the divine adminis- 
tration. Supernaturalism preceded Christianity, and ap- 
pears to have been generally accepted by the ancient 
nations. Since the origin of Christianity, it has been 
generally losing ground, till it is now in extreme peril. 
Rational Theism is as incompatible with Supernatural- 
ism as Atheism. With one supreme God there is no 
occasion for supernaturalism, and no roctm for it. Nature 
is another name for God, analogous to Providence, and to 
place God above nature is to place him above himself; he 
is nature ; nature's works are his works, and the laws of 
nature his laws ; Supernaturalism is therefore impossible, 
and is only conceivable with a false theory of nature as 
separate from God. Naturalism is God's eternal ex- 
hibition of himself to his creatures, and he appears in 
every fire that burns, in every light that shines, in every 
snow-flake and water-drop that falls, in every creature 
that lives, and in every thing that is without life. God is 
every where, and in all things, and is every where mani- 
fest. 



CHAPTER V. 105 

The real miracles of Naturalism are infinitely greater 
and more satisfactory than the supposed miracles of Super- 
naturalism ; their numbers and variety are infinite, and 
they are constantly occurring. They compel our atten- 
tion, we cannot get away from them ; we see them in all 
that we see ; hear them in all that we hear ; and they are 
constantly with us. Christianity finds God fully revealed 
in Naturalism, and acknowledges and glorifies him. It 
asks no gifts of supernatural prophesying or healing, and 
needs none ; natural prophesying and healing are much 
better, and all that is required. 

10. Of all the cures narrated in this book, none of the 
patients are named but Bartimaeus [son of Timaeus], the 
blind man of Jericho. This omission of names is not the 
method of history. Similar cures to those of Jesus are 
performed by the twelve apostles, during his life, and 
occasionally by some of them afterwards ; and continue to 
be reported till modern times. How is it possible that 
sober, cautious and truth-seeking Christians can receive 
such accounts, as narratives of facts ? They are never 
accepted as such elsewhere, and Protestants reject the 
miracles claimed by the ancient churches after the times 
of the apostles. By the same rule those of the apostles 
and Jesus must equally be rejected or received with 
allowances as exaggerations of real facts. They may 
represent extraordinary cures, but are not miraculous. 
Elsewhere extravagance is always an evidence of fiction, 
and nobody is deceived or misled by it. Fictitious 
miracles are of doubtful utility and offend the taste of 
modern times ; modern literature avoids them, and the 
progress of knowledge has made them obsolete and 
odious. If we met with them every where as the 
ancients did, we should know better how to deal with 
them ; their insulated character has helped to sustain 
them in undeserved credit. 



106 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

11. The assumption of the purely historic character of 
the first Gospel is connected with that of its absolute 
correctness and perfection. Both are delusions ; the 
book attributes mistakes to Jesus, and makes him a false 
prophet. He may have made mistakes like other men, 
in regard to the past, and like them, have misjudged the 
future ; but the mistakes and misjudgments attributed to 
him in this book, require strong attestation to make them 
credible ; instead of that, they are charged to him with- 
out any proof whatever. They appear to belong to the 
author of the book, and not to Jesus, and to be imputed 
to him by a fiction. * We submit examples of both. 

12. I. Mark 2 : 25, 26. " And he said to them, Have 
you not read what David did when he had need and was 
hungry, and those with him ; how he entered into the 
house of God, under Abiathar, chief priest, and ate the 
show bread which it was not lawful for any to eat but the 
priest, and gave also to those with him ? " 

12. On comparing this with 1 Sam. 21 : 6, we find two 
errors in it. There were no chief priests under Saul, 
and none appear in the times of the judges. The highest 
sacerdotal office known to the history of those times is 
that of priests ; and still later, under David and Solomon 
and their successors, we meet only with priests. Chief 
priests first appear in history after the Babylonian exile ; 
none existed from the times of Samuel to those of Zede- 
kiah ; Eli and Samuel were priests, but not chief priests ; 
so were Ahimelech, Zadoc, Abiathar, and their successors 
under the Hebrew kings. The history of those times is 
confused. 2 Sam. 8 : 17 says incorrectly, that Zadoc son 
of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests 
under David. This disagrees with 1 Sam. 22 : 11-22. 
which makes Ahimelech the father of Abiathar, and 
makes Saul kill him and his entire family of 85 persons, 
with the exception of Abiathar. After the destruction 



CHAPTER V. 107 

of his father's family, Abiathar attached himself to David, 
1062 B. C. ; near the death of David he attached himself 
to Adonijah, in 1015 B. C, for which Solomon degraded 
him from the priesthood, and banished him to Anathoth. 
1 Kings 1 : 7, 2 : 26, 27. Ahimelech the father of Abi- 
athar seems to have succeeded Samuel. Zadoc was first 
promoted to the priesthood by Saul, at the death of 
Ahimelech, and was continued in it under David co- 
ordinately with Abiathar, through his entire reign. 2 Sam. 
8 : 17. No chief priest appears under the kings of Judah 
and Israel till after the Babylonian exile. 

13. II. An erroneous judgment of the future is at- 
tributed to Jesus in Mark 13 : 24-27, 30, 31, making him 
a false prophet. It is as follows : " In those days, after 
that affliction, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon 
not give her light, and the stars fail from heaven, and the 
powers in the heavens be shaken ; and then shall they see 
the son of man coming in the clouds with great power 
and glory. Truly I tell you that this generation shall 
not pass away till all these things shall come to pass ; 
heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away." The book then makes Jesus proceed to say, 
that the precise day and hour of this great advent are 
unknown to men, angels, and himself, and to admonish 
his disciples to watch for it, and not allow it to overtake 
them unawares. 

14. This prediction is explicit, and need not be mis- 
understood. It describes a second advent of Jesus within 
one generation from the time of his crucifixion. No such 
advent came, and the prediction was not fulfilled. Its 
non-fulfilment shows that it is fictitious, and that the 
book to which it belongs admits fictitious elements. 

15. It detracts nothing from the work of Jesus to make 
him the subject of a religious poem. Such a j)oem anni- 
hilates no fact, reverses no action, and changes no prin- 



108 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

ciple. The fictitious incidents of this work militate in 
no degree against the historic character of Jesus and his 
actual doings ; but to interpret the fictitious as historic, 
misrepresents him, and misleads ourselves and others. 
The best fictions follow the analogy of facts, but are not 
facts themselves, and cannot be safely substituted for 
them. Fictions are creations of man, and facts of God. 
The true end of fiction is to represent facts and prin- 
ciples. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Country, parentage and trade, of Jesus ; and his temporary residence 

in Egypt. 

1. The first Gospel mentions Jesus as going from Naz- 
areth, in Galilee, to be baptized by John in the Jordan, 
and makes him begin his religious life as a disciple of 
John. Active and progressive minds are sometimes found 
in different connections, in different stages of life. They 
first join one church, and then another, and sometimes 
come out from all previous churches and found new de- 
nominations. The fact that Jesus followed John, previous 
to commencing his society, is no proof that we should 
follow him; it only shows to what point of information 
and judgment he had come at that time, and it also show r s 
that he had not then reached his own higher and nobler 
scheme. 

2. The place from which he hailed is not Jerusalem, 
nor Capernaum, in Galilee, but Nazareth. How long he 
had lived there we are not informed ; but in Mark 1 : 24, a 
demoniac addresses him as Jesus Nazarene, and the chief 
priest's servant girl says to Peter, Mark 14 : 67, " You 
were with Jesus the Nazarene." In Mark 6 : 1, his coun- 
try is mentioned by the title of patris, fatherland, and 
Jesus is described as visiting it with his disciples. Naz- 



CHAPTEK VI. 109 

areth was a small city in Lower Galilee, midway between 
the Lake of Tiberias and the Mediterranean Sea, almost 
entirely enclosed by hills, with a narrow, rocky ravine, 
towards the south, leading to the great plain of Esdraelon. 
The place was unknown to fame till Jesus made it illus- 
trious by hailing from it. 

3. The father of Jesus is not mentioned in this book ; 
his mother, sisters, and brothers are spoken of in connec- 
tion with his trade name of carpenter, by his countrymen, 
to justify their rejection of his doctrines. It is not to be 
supposed that the carpenter, the son of Mary, brother of 
James, Joset, Judas, and Simon, and of sisters who are 
known to us as ordinary women, should get the start of 
all mankind, and transcend the wisdom of Moses and the 
prophets. His mother and brothers are once mentioned 
previously as visiting Jesus at Capernaum, after the ap- 
pointment of the twelve apostles (Mark 3 : 31), but no 
particulars of the visit transpire. The mention of the pater- 
nal parentage of Jesus is so natural and necessary, accord- 
ing to all the rules of history, that the omission of it in this 
book requires to be accounted for. What is the reason 
for this omission ? The common reply is, that Joseph 
was dead before the scene opens. This is not satisfactory ; 
if he was dead, he should not have been forgotten, nor 
his name omitted in the account of his illustrious son. It 
is the law of nature and of God, that fathers should have 
some honor and respect on account of noble sons, as well 
as sons on account of noble fathers. The supposed death 
of Joseph before the baptism of Jesus, is not a sufficient 
reason for his being ignored ; and if a holy spirit was the 
father of Jesus, a parentage so remarkable ought still 
more to be noted. 

Two reasons are conceivable: 1. That the author did 
not know the name of his father ; 2. That his paternal 
parentage was not creditable. The first of these sup- 
10 



110 CEITICAL INTRODUCTION". 

positions is not probable. The paternal parentage of 
Jesus could have been ascertained at the time when this 
book was written, and if he had a divine parentage, and 
this was known from the time of his birth, and certified 
by good evidence, a knowledge of it would naturally 
attend his religion every where. 

4. The first hypothesis must therefore be dismissed, as 
entirely improbable. A man that knew enough of Jesus 
to write the first Gospel, knew of his father, and might 
have told us of him. He is not silent on the subject of 
his paternal parentage from ignorance, but from choice 
and policy. What reason can be supposed for such a pol- 
icy ? None but the hypothesis that his paternal parentage 
was discreditable. It is not sufficient to suppose that it 
was not illustrious ; it must have been discreditable. God 
does not always adopt the sons of nobles and endow them 
for the greater works of his providence and grace ; and he 
sometimes elevates men from the lowest conditions, and 
even from illegitimate births, to be benefactors of ages 
and nations. There is a reason for this : souls are born by 
a divine law, and all come from God with the inalienable 
rights of sons. Any laws or usages of society, reflecting 
discredit on them from conditions preceding their in- 
dependent moral agency, is an insult to the Creator, and 
charges him with folly. 

5. It was alleged by an ancient infidel, that Jesus, 
so far from being a son of Mary by a holy spirit, was her 
illegitimate son, by a Greek soldier. Origen replied, " It 
is not credible that God should make an illegitimate birth 
the commencement of the highest, mightiest, noblest, and 
most beneficent life that was ever lived." Both were 
wrong; the infidel in supposing that the legitimacy or 
illegitimacy of the birth of Jesus was of the least account 
in estimating his personal worth, his gifts and endow- 
ments, or the truth and value of his religion. None of 



CHAPTER VI. Ill 

these things depend on the accidents of birth. And 
Origen was equally wrong in his assumption that God 
could not endow the subject of an illegitimate birth with 
the highest gifts, and crown him with the most exalted 
and enduring honors. Romulus, the founder of the 
greatest and most enduring empire that has yet existed, 
was of an illegitimate birth, and Mars, the god of war, 
was claimed for his father. He was at first an unfortunate 
on account of the misfortunes of his mother, but was 
ultimately made an instrument of divine providence to 
accomplish incalculable good for the human family, and 
revolutionize the world. If the accidents of the birth of 
Jesus were discreditable, the earliest Christians may have 
left them in the dark, and the silence of this book on the 
subject favors this hypothesis. Christianity has nothing 
to lose by it, and smiles contemptuously at the ignorance 
and weakness that can fear it as a dishonor, or the silly 
malice that can think to make it such. 

6. The second and third Gospels make Bethlehem, six 
miles south-west of Jerusalem, the native city of Jesus, as 
it had been of David ; and the third has his mother called 
there for a temporary purpose a short time previous to his 
birth. The second Gospel sends the holy family from 
Bethlehem to Egypt, and from Egypt to Nazareth in 
Galilee, where it takes up its residence. The sojourn in 
Egypt has the appearance of a myth, and if it is mythic 
may correspond to a fact of great importance in the his- 
tory of the family. Myths mean much more than they 
express. Pythagoras, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, and 
other great inquirers after truth, travelled extensively in 
the pursuit of it — visited Egypt, inspected its mon- 
uments and public records, questioned its priests and 
other literati, and profited by its experience and wisdom. 
The most enlightened Greeks drank deeply from Egyp- 
tian fountains. Alexander the Great transferred the 



112 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION". 

Greek language and other Greek arts to Alexandria, and 
founded that imperial city as a second home of the 
Muses, and the greatest school of the arts which the world 
had yet seen. Learning was zealously pursued and 
liberally encouraged there, till some centuries after the 
time of Jesus, when its decline was the effect of growing 
superstitions connected with Christianity. 

7. History gives us no satisfactory account of the 
birth and early life of Jesus, nor of the means by which 
he was qualified for his great work. For aught that 
appears, he may have been born above the lowest con- 
ditions of ignorance, and his father have gone with him 
to Egypt in early life for the purpose of informing his 
mind, and giving him the benefit of the first Greek 
university in the world at that time. The account in the 
second Gospel is not to be taken literally, and if mythic, 
what is more likely than the above supposition ? The 
visit of the Magi is a fiction, and the flight to Egypt, con- 
nected with it, in part fictitious ; there was no such flight, 
and no occasion for any. But neither is necessarily with- 
out meaning ; the flight to Egypt, with the infant Jesus, 
may represent a journey to that country in his later 
youth, and the temporary residence of the family there 
may be a fact. If it is, it is a fact of great importance. 
From whatever source his mental culture was obtained, 
it seems to have been of a high order, and he justly takes 
rank as first among the first, in respect to his abilities as 
a thinker and reasoner. 

8. Jesus was a carpenter. A carpenter is an artificer 
who works in timber, but chiefly a builder of houses and 
other edifices. This trade requires intelligence, judgment, 
and taste, and is an excellent mental discipline, but 
allows little time for abstruse or recondite studies. Con- 
sidered as embracing architectural designs, it stands at 
the head of all the mechanic arts, and has developed 



CHAPTER VI. 113 

geniuses of the highest order. How long Jesus pursued 
this trade, and to what branches of it he devoted his 
great abilities, we are not informed. He did not pursue 
it in vain, but made it a preparatory discipline for his 
higher services, and still more useful labors. 

It is not generally expedient for men to change their 
trades and professions. By doing so they lose the benefit 
of whatever skill and information they have acquired in 
studying and pursuing them, and any one business, well 
followed, is better than many followed less perfectly, in 
succession, for the same period. But there are some 
exceptions to this rule, and one interesting and large class 
of exceptions is that in which men, by an uncommon im- 
provement of their faculties in a lower calling, become 
fitted for a higher one, and enter upon it to advantage. 
Such changes are analogous to promotions in an army. 
Socrates was by trade a statuary, Paul a tent maker, 
David a shepherd, and Jesus a carpenter, perhaps an 
architect. Socrates abandoned his trade under the in- 
spirations of higher knowledge, which he obtained while 
pursuing it, to become the founder of the Greek philos- 
ophy ; Paul abandoned his to become an apostle of the 
religion of Jesus, and proclaim it widely through the 
world ; David left the business of a shepherd to be a 
military leader, and subsequently king of Israel ; and 
Jesus, far exceeding all the others, left house-building 
to build up all human society on the principles of justice 
and mercy, and to inaugurate the reign of universal 
order and happiness. He probably stepped as easily from 
the trade of a carpenter into the high office of a re- 
ligious revolutionist and radical reformer, as he could 
have done from the profession of scribe or priest. 
10*. 



114 CEITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Name and titles of Jesus and of his early followers. 

1. The title of this book, Gospel of Jesus Christ, Son 
of God, applies epithets to Jesus never applied to him in 
the body of the work. Gospel in this connection signifies 
the religion of Jesus, not the book, and the beginning of 
the gospel the beginning of this religion. The title does 
not correspond with the book ; to correspond with it, we 
should have Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus the Teacher. 
The book describes Jesus as he is supposed to have taught 
and labored, and was received by his contemporaries ; the 
title as he was regarded by the leading schools of his fol- 
lowers many years after his death. According to the first 
three Gospels he did not proclaim himself the messiah, 
and was not generally received as such by his contem- 
poraries ; he only claimed to be a teacher, having impor- 
tant information to give, and inviting attention to his les- 
sons. This is much to his credit, and relieves him entirely 
from the charge of practising on the credulity and fanati- 
cism of the times. 

2. There is another discrepancy between the title and 
the book ; the title describes the Gospel as gospel of 
Jesus Christ, son of God, but the book as gospel of God. 
Gospel does not occur in the Epistles of Peter ; in those 
of Paul, we have gospel of God, in Rom. 1 : 3 ; 15 : 16 ; 
2 Cor. 11 : 7 ; 1 Thess. 2 : 2, 8, 9 ; 1 Tim. 1:11; and gos- 
pel of Christ, in Rom. 15 : 19 ; 1 Cor. 9 : 12, 18; Gal. 
1 : 7 ; 1 Thess. 3 : 2 ; 2 Thess. 1 : 18 ; 3 : 2, 8. 

3. The sub-title of this Gospel has generally been con- 
sidered a part of it, and is so rendered in the common 
and other versions ; but it is shown to be a title by its 
form, signification, and position. It has the form of a 
title by being without a verb or other predicate ; it has 



CHAPTER VII. 115 

the signification of a title by stating the subject of the 
entire book ; it occupies the position of ancient titles, at 
the head of the book, and not separated from it ; title 
pages are a modern invention. 

4. The third Gospel has the name of Jesus given him 
by direction of the angel Gabriel ; the first and second 
take no notice of such an incident. Jesus is a Hellenic 
name, and was in common use among the Hellenic Jews ; 
it marks those to whom it was applied, as using the 
Greek language. The name corresponds to Jeshua of the 
later Hebrew, and the ancient Joshua. If Jesus had 
been brought up by non-Hellenic Jews, his name would 
have been Jeshua. His being called Jesus, and not Jeshua, 
proves that his native language was Greek, and that he 
belonged to the Hellenic Jews. Jesus was never called 
Christ, nor Jesus Christ, in his lifetime ; he was then only 
called Jesus, Jesus IsTazarene, and teacher ; Peter calls 
him Rabbi at the time of his transfiguration, and Judas 
when he betrays him ; and Bartimaeus, the blind man of 
Jericho, calls him son of David. In addition to this, 
God twice proclaims him his beloved son, first at his bap- 
tism by John, and the second time at his transfiguration ; 
and the centurion who watched at the cross, says, " Truly 
this man was a son of God," when he witnesses his death. 
Son of God is an epithet of endearment, and signifies that 
he was dear to God. 

Jesus made no claims to be received as son of David, 
and never presented himself to the people in that capacity. 
His entry into Jerusalem is described as a triumph, in 
terms to suit the national expectations in regard to their 
mighty king. The kingdom of David was to precede 
that of his greater son (Dan. 7 : 9-22) ; and Jesus is blessed 
as coming in the name of Kurios. This is his true char- 
acter ; he taught in the name of God, but claimed and 
received no regal or divine honors. 



116 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 



5. After the death of Jesus a great change takes place 
in his religion. Before, it was the worship of God ; now, 
it is the worship of Jesus: before, Jesus was the teacher; 
now, he is the king. Jesus the teacher is greater and 
nobler than Jesus the king, and Jesus the man superior to 
Jesus the God. Jesus the teacher is the prince of teach- 
ers, and Jesus the man the noblest and most godlike of 
men. Jesus is a minister of God and a propounder of the 
moral laws of the universe, as beneficent, perfect, and 
supreme. After his death his religion was greatly corrupt- 
ed. This shows how much he was in advance of his age. 
The account of the confession of Peter (Mark 8 : 29, 30) 
appears to be a fiction conformable to the faith concern- 
ing him after his death, as the Jewish king. 

6. The new religionists were first called Christians at 
Antioch, the capital of Syria, apparently about 43 A. D., 
15 years after the death of Jesus. They w^ere receiving 
the Gentiles, but had not yet broken away from circum- 
cision. Sacrifices were silently abandoned without de- 
bate, but circumcision was not as easily shaken off. Some 
adopted the title of Gnostics or knowers. By begging 
fundamental questions, and reasoning from them as prin- 
ciples, the Gnostics fell into great absurdities, and ulti- 
mately ruined their cause. All mixed systems must 
ultimately reject their errors, and become systems of 
truth, or else abandon their truths, and become systems 
of error. Truth and error do not agree, and one or the 
other must be abandoned. Truths and errors that cannot 
otherwise be distinguished, are both ultimately made 
known by their consequences. These may not be reached 
in a year, ten years, or a thousand years, but they are sure 
to be reached ultimately. 

The Gnostics and Christians were originally of the 
same stock ; when they first separated, they differed but 
slightly, and agreed in the pursuit of knowledge wher- 






CHAPTER VII. 117 

ever it might be had. This was the doctrine of Jesus : 

he was an apostle of religious knowledge versus uncer- 
tain opinions, and had the Gnostics been true to their 
name and profession, they would have been the noblest 
branch of the new religionists. But neither party under- 
stood the difference between knowledge and opinions ; 
the Christian party deviated widely from the truth in one 
direction, and the Gnostic in others. The Gnostics were 
the most extravagant of the two, and paid the least re- 
spect to common sense. They soon fell into stormy seas, 
and were wrecked; but the Christians, less adventurous, 
kept on, and still lead the world, not, however, without 
having; committed great errors, and having much to recon- 
sider and reconstruct. The time for profitable reconsider- 
ation and reconstruction has fully come, and the demand 
for them is infinite. 

7. Epiphanius Haeres (39, 4) says that Philo treats of 
Christians under the title of Jesse-ites, perhaps referring 
to Jesus, as through David, a son of Jesse, possibly called 
after a leader by the name of Jesse. He says that Chris- 
tians were so called while Mark preached the gospel at 
Alexandria, 52-62 A. D. Eusebius says that the Chris- 
tians of Egypt were described by Philo as therapeu- 
tists or physicians. The Gospels make Jesus and his 
earliest disciples extraordinary physicians ; they practise 
the healing art in connection with giving religious and 
moral instruction ; some modern preachers do the same. 
Many Christian critics have been unwilling to admit that 
the therapeutists of Philo are the Christians of Egypt in 
the time of Mark, but there is no good reason to doubt it. 
It is to be presumed, however, that in a numerous and 
extended body of independent thinkers, there would be 
great diversities of character, and that some would be 
far in advance of others. 



118 CEITICAL INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Greek language of Jesus ; its character and uses ; Greek names of the 
apostles ; Peter not the same as Cephas ; mistake of John, 1 : 43 ; 
death of Jesus. 

1. The Greek language was the result of accurate 
observations and reasonings, and demanded accuracy and 
logical precision in its use ; it was both a product and in- 
strument of reason and profound inquiry, and gave vigor- 
ous and constant exercise to the reasoning powers. It 
served the imagination as well, and all the higher faculties 
gained an expansion and development by means of it, 
which would otherwise have been unattainable. The 
same qualities belong in an eminent degree to the English, 
and some other modern languages, as they did also to the 
Latin. The Greek and Latin races owe their preeminence 
in part to their languages, both of which were instru- 
ments of high intelligence, exact analysis, and profound 
and comprehensive reasoning. The ancient Greek lan- 
guage, like the best modern languages, was an instrument 
of reasoning and discovery analogous to letters and other 
algebraic signs in the hands of mathematicians. Algebra- 
ists accomplish by these signs what would otherwise be 
impossible, and solve problems that admit of solution by 
no other means. Men are aided in every department 
of reasoning, from facts and principles, by a superior lan- 
guage, in the same manner, and to an equal clegree, and 
are thereby enabled to reach results that would otherwise 
far exceed their powers. 

2. Besides serving as a superior instrument of reason- 
ing, the Greek language was a key to all Greek learning, 
and brought every thing that was known and committed 
to writing by the Greeks, to the hand of all that used it. 
Jesus, having this by birth among the Hellenic Jews, had 



CHAPTER VIII. 119 

ready access both to the books of the Septuagint, and all 
that was taught by them, and to the classic works of 
Greece in every department of inquiry. He may be pre- 
sumed to have read the Greek poets and philosophers, and 
the Greek historians and dramatic writers, and to have 
been master of whatever wisdom they possessed and taught. 

3. The Jews began to use the Greek language under 
Alexander the Great, 332 B. C, who diffused it extensively, 
with other Greek arts, in Asia and Egypt. It was the 
language of Alexandria in Egypt, and of all the Greek 
cities in Asia, and was much used by others besides native 
Greeks. All did not profit by its superior adaptations 
for reasoning and discovery, nor by its rich and abun- 
dant stores ; but many did. The extent to which it was 
used by the Jews, previous to the time of Jesus, and the 
degree to which they profited by it, are indicated by the 
Septuagint, with its apocryphal additions. This is the 
great monument of the Hellenic Jews previous to the 
time of Jesus, as the Targums and Talmuds are of the 
non-Hellenic Jews, from the time of Jesus to the sixth 
and eighth Christian centuries. A comparison of these 
works shows a vast superiority of the Hellenic Jews. 

4. Jesus is the great light of the Hellenic Jews and 
of the world, and appears by his superior abilities to have 
made full proof of the capabilities of the Greek language 
to serve as an instrument of mental culture, and also of 
reasoning and discovery. His school was Greek, and 
not Hebrew ; this appears from many considerations, 
some of which have been noted in a previous chapter. 
His disciples were chiefly Hellenic Jews, and those that 
came to him from the Hebrew division of the nation, 
received Greek names on entering his school. Thus 
Simon was called Peter, and James and John Boanerges, 
both of which are Greek names. Such a christening is 
impossible except in a Greek community. Peter is com- 



120 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

mon to all the Gospels as the Greek name of the most 
distinguished of the twelve apostles. Mark 3 : 16 makes 
Simon receive his name of Peter on the occasion of the 
appointment of the twelve apostles : "And [Jesus] gave 
Simon the name of Peter;" before he is known only as 
Simon, having Andrew for his brother; and according 
to Mark 1 : 16, Simon and Andrew were the first disciples 
Jesus called, and were called by him at the Sea of Galilee, 
after John was cast into prison. Jesus first sees and calls 
Simon and Andrew, and directly after calls James and 
John, sons of Zebedee. Peter's parentage is not men- 
tioned in the first three Gospels ; in the fourth, according 
to Tischendorf, he is made a son of John ; John 1 : 43, 
21 : 15-17, incorrectly called Jonas in the common text. 

5. John 1 : 28-43, makes Jesus first meet with Andrew 
and Peter at Bethany, beyond the Jordan, where John 
the Baptist was baptizing, and there enlist them and 
others as followers, before John was cast into prison. 
According to this later authority, the first disciple called 
was Andrew, and another whose name is not mentioned. 
John 1 : 35-41. Then Andrew finds his brother Simon, 
and introduces Jesus to him as the Messiah, when Jesus 
gives Simon the name of Cephas. The account is as 
follows : John 1 : 41, 43, "Andrew the brother of Simon 
Peter was one of the two who heard from John and fol- 
lowed him. He first finds his brother Simon, and says, 
We have found the Messiah, which is interpreted Christ. 
And he brought him to Jesus, and looking on him, Jesus 
said, You are Simon son of John ; you shall be called 
Cephas, which is interpreted Peter." 

6. The account in John differs from that in Mark in 
several respects, and if that is correct this must be 
erroneous. 

I. According to Mark, the calling of Simon and Andrew, 
and James and John, is after John was cast into prison. 



CHAPTER VIII. 121 

Mark 1 : 14-20. According to the fourth Gospel. Andrew 
and Simon are called while John is still preaching 
at Bethany, beyond the Jordan. John 1 : 28-43. 

II. According to Mark, Jesus sees and calls Peter first 
of all his disciples ; according to the fourth Gospel he 
first sees and' calls Andrew, and another whose name is 
not mentioned, but by whom John is probably meant. 

III. According to Mark, the language of the school of 
Jesus was Greek from the first ; according to the fourth 
Gospel, it is Hebrew at first, and afterwards Greek. 

IV. According to Mark 3 : 16, Jesus gives Simon the 
name of Peter when he ascended a mountain and appointed 
his twelve apostles, both to attend on his teaching, and to 
go abroad and teach others, long after John was im- 
prisoned ; and according to the fourth Gospel, he calls 
him Cephas, and not Peter, at the time of meeting him 
at Bethany, while John is still at liberty. 

7. If Jesus called Simon Peter, he did not call him 
Cephas ; the two names correspond in signification, but 
belong to different languages, Peter to the Greek, and 
Cephas to the Hebrew. It is the usage of all times to 
transfer names without translating them. They are only 
subject to variations without radical changes. Mr. Black 
is Mr. Black in all languages, and Mr. White Mr. White. 
The incorrectness of this statement appears, first, from its 
disagreement with the first Gospel, which is followed also 
by the second ; and secondly, from its disagreement with 
the same Gospel elsewhere. The fourth Gospel christens 
Simon Cephas, and then always makes Jesus and others 
call him Peter, never Cephas. I conclude therefore, that 
John 1 : 43 is fictitious and erroneous. Jesus did not first 
meet Peter in the manner, nor at the place or time here 
stated, nor call him Cephas. 

8. Peter and Cephas were different persons ; Peter was 
an apostle, Cephas a distinguished and honored disciple 

11 



122 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION*. 

of Jesus, but not an apostle. Peter is mentioned every- 
where as an apostle, Cephas is never mentioned as such. 
The only authentic notices of Cephas are by Paul, and 
are as follows : 1 Cor. 1 : 12, "Each one of you says 
[one], I am of Paul, and [another], I am of Apollos, and 
[another], I am of Cephas, and another, I am of Christ." 
There is nothing in this connection to indicate that 
Cephas was Peter, any more than that Apollos was. 
3 : 21-23, "Let none glory in men, whether Paul, or 
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or the 
present, or the future ; all are yours, and you are Christ's, 
and Christ is God's." 9:5, " Have we not power to lead 
about a sister wife, as also the rest of the Apostles, and 
the Lord's brothers, and Cephas ? " Here Cephas is dis- 
tinguished from the apostles, and from the Lord's brothers, 
showing that he cannot be Peter, who was chief of the 
apostles. 15 : 4-8, " And that he was buried, and that he 
was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve 
[apostles] ; afterwards he appeared to more than five 
hundred brothers once for all, of whom most remain till 
now, but some have also fallen asleep ; then he appeared 
to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to an 
untimely birth, he appeared also to me." Gal. 2 : 7-14, 
" But on the contrary, seeing that I was intrusted with 
the gospel of the uncircumcision, as Peter of the circum- 
cision, — for he that gave power to Peter for the apostle- 
ship of the circumcision, gave power also to me for the 
Gentiles, — and knowing the grace given me, James, and 
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave me and 
Barnabas right hands of fellowship, that we should go to 
the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision ; only that we 
should remember the poor, which also I was forward to 
do. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him 
to the face, for he was convicted of a wrong. Before 



CHAPTER VIII. 123 

some came from James, be ate with the Gentiles ; but 
when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, 
fearing those of the circumcision, and the rest of the Jews 
also dissembled with them, so that Barnabas was carried 
away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they 
walked not rightly for the truth, I said to Cephas before 
all, If you, being a Jew, live according to the Gentiles, 
and not according to the Jews, why do you compel the 
Gentiles to Judaize ? " 

9. These passages afford the clearest proof that Cephas 
is not identical with Peter. Cephas and Peter are both 
mentioned in it with discrimination and without being 
identified. 

This view is further supported by the order of the 
names in Gal. 2:9; they are James, Cephas, and John. 
Peter always has the preeminence, and whenever he is 
mentioned in connection with others, is always mentioned 
first. If Peter was meant by Cephas, the order of the 
names should have been Cephas, James, and John. The 
same high authorities that conceded, the preeminence to 
Peter among the Jews, conceded it to Paul among the 
Gentiles. The dissimulation and timidity of Cephas are 
very improperly charged to Peter, and quite unworthy 
of him. 

10. Paul's statement, 1 Cor. 15 : 5, of a tradition that 
Jesus first appeared after the resurrection to Cephas, gives 
no support to John 1 : 43 in identifying Cephas with 
Peter, but the contrary. Xone of the Gospels make 
Peter the first to see Jesus after his resurrection. Accord- 
ing to Matt. 28 : 9, he appears first to Mary the Magdalene 
and the other Mary, and a second time to the eleven in 
Galilee, when, however, some doubted. Matt. 28 : 16, 17. 
John 20 : 13-18 supports the second Gospel in making 
Jesus first appear to Mary the Magdalene. Paul, in mak- 
ing Cephas the first witness of the resurrection, follows a 



124 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

different tradition from that of the second and fourth 
Gospels, and the third Gospel differs from all the other 
authorities. Paul's statement in 1 Cor. 15 : 5, that 
Jesus appeared first to Cephas, so far from contribut- 
ing to identify Cephas and Peter, really militates 
against that hypothesis. It is very evident that Jesus 
was not supposed elsewhere to have appeared first to 
Peter. All the Gospels concur in making Jesus give his 
lessons and deliver his discourses in Greek, and Luke 
4 : 18, 19, makes him read Isaiah from the Septuagint, in 
the synagogue of Nazareth. Philo, a younger contem- 
porary of Jesus, was an eminent Greek scholar and mas- 
ter of Plato ; and Josephus, near the close of the first 
Christian century, wrote his voluminous works in Greek. 
Of the three schools of Jewish learning, the Pharisees and 
Sadducees were Hebrew, and called by Hebrew names ; 
but the Essenes were Hellenic, and called by Greek 
names. Josephus calls them Essenes, and Philo Ther- 
apeutists, or physicians. 

11. The Greeks applied their superior language and 
logic to reasoning on religious and moral subjects, and 
reached many valuable results. With his great purpose 
of founding a new religion, Jesus would naturally explore 
all that was previously known ; it was his duty to do so. 
He could only expect to succeed by availing himself of 
every help that was at hand. The Hellenic Jews, as the 
advanced wing of the Jewish nation, adding the learning 
and culture of the Greeks to those of the Jews, were in 
a position to lead the world ; and it was not an accident 
that the new religion arose among them. The union of 
Greek and Hebrew learning was the natural condition of 
the birth of a new and higher civilization. Christianity 
is born of this union ; it is not formed from Judaic the- 
ology and Greek philosophy on the principle of eclecticism, 
and is not a variation of either or both, but a product 



CHAPTER YIII. 125 

and higher result. Jesus was not an eclectic, but an 
inventor ; invention is beyond eclecticism, as discovery is 
beyond recognition. 

12. Little is thought of the learning of Jesus, or the 
study by which he qualified himself for his mighty task. 
The common estimate makes him scarcely a subject of 
learning, and gives him all knowledge as his natural 
endowment. Such a hypothesis virtually excludes him 
from the category of men, and must be false. Ideas are 
not innate, and all possible human knowledge is acquired. 
In all the higher departments of reasoning it is acquired 
with labor and difficulty, and must be sought in legitimate 
methods. Imperfect observations, hasty judgments, and 
reckless assumptions block up the paths of knowledge, 
and render its attainment impossible. From his keen 
analysis and comprehensive generalizations, Jesus appears 
to have been a reasoner of rare powers. He exceeds 
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in his discoveries, outstrips 
the Jewish scribes and doctors of the law, and performs 
for religion a work like that of Bacon or Newton for 
philosophy. 

13. It is no valid objection to the hypothesis of the 
learning of Jesus that he was able to call around him at 
first only the illiterate, and did not receive the homage of 
the literati of his times. Superior knowledge is usually 
misjudged and disparaged by contemporary criticism. 
Those at the head of all generally accepted ideas, not 
unfrequently regard a progressive who plants his standard 
on new ground as a visionary to be despised, or a pre- 
tender to be discountenanced. Men of real science are 
as ignorant of what is a single step beyond their dis- 
coveries, as those who make no pretensions to science, 
and often pronounce against conclusions which they have 
not reached, without deeming it necessary to look care- 
fully after them. Contemporary critics generally misjudge 

11 * 



126 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

and condemn new advents and incarnations of the divine, 
and denounce them as idle pretensions or wicked im- 
positions. It was fit that Jesus, the prince of all 
discoverers should be crucified for his progressive teach- 
ing ; any milder treatment by the literati of his time 
would have been a departure from their general methods. 
The Greeks kill Socrates, and the Jews Jesus, for the 
same reason. 

14. Progress is perilous ; the death of Jesus by martyr- 
dom has been considered by many the salvation of the 
world. It is a light high on the mountains of the past to 
guide the tempest-beaten mariner on his stormy seas; 
it is a lesson to all murderers and persecutors, and demon- 
strates the inefficacy of their methods ; it ministers 
encouragement and strength to the suffering, and nerves 
the arm of the Christian soldier for deeds of daring; but 
the murder of the world's brightest light was a crime 
to be punished, and the divine Nemesis has not been slow 
nor sparing in penal inflictions. Had Jesus been allowed 
to live till God called him home, he might have made 
himself better understood by his oral teachings, and 
have written works that would have saved the world 
from some of its extraordinary mistakes. 

15. The judicial murder of Jesus was performed by 
the highest authorities of his age and country with 
deliberation and forethought. It was artfully planned, 
commenced with bribery and treachery, and consummated 
with falsehood, perjury, and cruelty. It extinguished the 
greatest light which up to that time had risen in the 
world, and allowed darkness and old night to resume 
their dominion in large territories from which they were 
being expelled. The subsequent mistakes respecting 
Jesus in making him a God, and also in making him 
expiate the sins of the world on his cross, with many 
other affiliated errors, are providential rebukes and pun- 



CHAPTER IX. 127 

ishments of this great misdeed. The murder of Jesus 
was perpetrated by religious superstition and intolerance 
— the two pet demons of superficial and false religionists, 
but the abhorrence of all true religion ; and far from 
being a substitutionary punishment and expiation of the 
sins of all men, in all previous and succeeding ages, has 
occasioned, among the most cultivated races, the most 
gigantic diversion of human reason from the true paths of 
religious knowledge and discovery into those of fanaticism 
and delusion that has ever occurred — a diversion that is 
yet to be corrected, and the correction of which will be 
the greatest single deliverance of the human race, — far 
exceeding that of the Hebrews from the bondage of 
Egypt ; that of the early Christians from the unprofitable 
burdens of Judaism, and the triumph of early Christianity 
over the already obsolete and dying idolatries of Greece 
and Rome. Not till this great deliverance is effected, 
will the religion of Jesus be correctly understood, or the 
highest and noblest developments of human nature be 
obtained by it. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Jesus compared with Aristotle and other great discoverers and 

reformers. 

1. Jesus and Aristotle are both independent, original, 
and powerful thinkers, and great discoverers. Aristotle 
was a Greek of the Greeks, an instructor of Alexander 
the Great, and founder of the Aristotelian philosophy, 
one of the most distinguished schools of Greek and 
general learning. Jesus was a Hellenic Jew, an instructor 
of the twelve apostles, and founder of Christianity. 
Both were great teachers, and took advanced positions in 
the field of knowledge, from which the world can never 
recede. Aristotle resolved questions pertaining to rhet- 



128 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

oric, logic, politics, and ethics, but stopped short of 
resolving the greatest of all questions — those pertaining 
to God and his laws, and the higher relations and duties 
of men. On these subjects he found the minds of men 
dark and perplexed, and left them so. Jesus appeared 
300 years later, when great changes had occurred, and 
Greek preeminence had given place to that of Rome, 
abandoned the prevailing superstitions, and declared the 
true laws of God, and duties of men. 

2. Aristotle was a companion of princes, and profited 
by the friendship and patronage of the mightiest and 
most enterprising kings of his time. Jesus was a com- 
panion of the poor and undistinguished, and passed his 
life remote from royal favor. Aristotle taught invaluable 
lessons on the nature and excellence of virtue, and the 
capacities, arts, and duties of man ; but Jesus taught the 
presence and goodness of God, and the completeness and 
perfection of his government, ordaining virtue as the 
means of happiness, and establishing and supporting its 
laws. Aristotle resolved the secondary questions of the 
contingent and finite; Jesus, the primary questions of the 
absolute and infinite. Aristotle reasoned chiefly on the 
material and temporal ; Jesus, on the spiritual and eternal. 
Aristotle taught men how to frame discourses, construct 
arguments, conduct discussions, and cultivate virtues ; 
Jesus, how to worship God, and be like him. Aristotle 
waged an uncompromising war with Sophistry and incor- 
rect reasoning, but not directly with superstition, the 
accumulated product of the incorrect reasonings of all 
previous ages ; Jesus assailed the empire of superstition 
in its strongest citadel, that of Judaism, and laid his axe 
at the root of all the most cherished and venerable delu- 
sions of the human race. Jesus investigated higher 
questions than Aristotle, considered nobler and grander 
themes, and conducted his pupils to greater intelligence, 



CHAPTER IX. 129 

virtue, and happiness. Both are ministers of truth and 
reason, and so far ministers of God ; but Jesus is far the 
superior. 

3. There are established orders of events, and uniform 
methods of progress and discovery ; men do not scale 
the heights of knowledge from the base without travers- 
ing the fields that intervene. The ignorant, illiterate, 
and weak are never great discoverers ; generations ad- 
vance on generations, and ages on ages. Jesus was 
enabled to exceed Aristotle by coming after him, and 
belonging to a later age. 

4. Judaism was built, like its temple, to endure ; it was 
the product of the highest wisdom of the times that pro- 
duced it, and will never cease to be an object of interest 
to liberal inquirers. It embraced the great and precious 
truth of one supreme God and sovereign Ruler, and set 
forth correctly many of his laws ; but it also embraced 
many delusions, and imposed heavy and unprofitable bur- 
dens. Against these delusions the Jews had been strug- 
gling from the time of Alexander the Great, 300 years. 
The progressives said, The system of our fathers is imper- 
fect ; let us improve it : it imposes unprofitable burdens 
and tasks ; let us cast them aside and be free ; let us aban- 
don many of our traditionary usages, and adopt improved 
methods from the Greeks. Conservatism said, ISTo ; Moses 
and the prophets are the end and height of wisdom ; we 
can never leave them : every iota of our institutions is 
divinely appointed, and the whole must be maintained. 
The conservatives had the advantage, and free thought 
was restrained by the severest methods of persecution ; 
at times reason threatened to break its chains, and assume 
its native freedom, but as yet conservatism predominated. 
An emergency thus arose, requiring an original and 
mighty genius to meet it. Many were reasoning and 
arriving at new results, unknown to Moses and the 



130 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

prophets, and also to the later scribes ; the old super- 
stitions were tottering to their fall, and new truth was 
struggling into light and life, and claiming its just regards. 
A bold and capable leader was wanted to organize the 
available material of progressive thinking, into an army 
of liberation and conquest. Jesus met this emergency ; 
quietly and cautiously abandoned Jewish prejudices, re- 
spected and retained whatever was had of truth, and 
proposed a religion of truth and reason in the place of all 
religions of authority. He did not attack Judaism directly, 
but undermined it by preaching righteousness and the 
real laws of God, in opposition to Jewish ceremonialism 
and all other delusions. 

5. The arts and sciences have their masters, who have 
extended the triumphs of human reason, and established 
by their improvements, new epochs of the human race. 
Astronomy has Copernicus ; natural philosophy, Newton ; 
higher philosophy, Bacon and Locke ; and religion, Jesus, 
Jesus occupies a preeminence in religion analogous to 
that of great discoverers in other sciences and arts. 



CHAPTER X. 

Religion of Jesus as understood by Eusebius, 314-342 A. D., and 
the church in his times. 

1. Eusebius, bishop ot Caesarea, in Palestine, in the 
time of Constantine the Great, 314-342, and the father 
of church history, devotes the fourth chapter of his his- 
tory to a consideration of the religion of Jesus. It is as 
follows : " These things [the preceding chapters] are 
necessarily premised before our history, that none may 
think our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ to be a new 
comer, on account of the times of his citizenship in the 
flesh. And now that no one may suppose his doctrine to 



CHAPTER X. 131 

be new or strange, as if devised by a new man, and one 
similar in all respects to the rest of men, let us inquire 
briefly concerning it." 

2. " Directly after the appearance of our Savior shone 
on all men, a nation [the church] appeared confessedly 
new, not small, nor founded in a corner of the world, but 
the most populous and pious of all nations, and inde- 
structible and invincible, because it always obtains help 
from God. This numerous nation, that appeared in times 
fixed by inscrutable appointments, is honored by all with 
the name of Christ [Christian]. One of the prophets, 
foreseeing by the eye of the divine spirit what was to 
be, was so struck that he exclaimed, ' Who has heard of 
such things, and who has spoken thus ? Has the earth 
brought forth in a day, and a nation been born at once ?' 
The same prophet gives some intimation of the name to 
be introduced, saying, ' Those that serve me shall be 
called by a new name, which shall be blessed in the earth.' 
But though we are evidently a new people, this name of 
Christians is widely known to all nations. Our life and 
manner of living, however, with our dogmas of piety, 
have not been recently devised, but were established from 
the first birth of men by the natural reasonings of the 
ancient friends of God, as we will now show." 

3. " The nation of the Hebrews is not new, but honored 
by all for its antiquity ; the books and documents of this 
nation relate to ancient men widely separated, and few in 
number, but excelling in piety, righteousness, and every 
virtue. Some were distinguished before the deluge, and 
others after it — both the children and later posterity 
of IsToah, and especially Abraham, whom the Hebrews 
reckon as their leader and forefather. Should any one go 
back from Abraham to the first man, and call all noted 
for righteousness, in deed if not in name, Christians, he 
would not hit far from the truth. For the Christian name 



132 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

naturally signifies that a man is adorned with sobriety, 
righteousness, patience, a virtuous manliness, and a pro- 
fession of piety towards one God alone over all, by the 
knowledge and teaching of Christ. All this was as 
diligently practised by them as by us. They did not care 
for circumcision of the body, nor for keeping the Sabbath ; 
nor do we ; neither do w^e abstain from certain meats, 
nor observe other things which Moses afterwards first 
delivered to be observed with symbols of perfection. 
Such things Christians have nothing to do with." 

4. "But they obviously knew God's Christ, as he 
appeared to Abraham, gave oracles to Isaac, and spoke to 
Jacob ; that he communed with Moses, and the prophets 
after him, has already been shown. Hence you find those 
friends of God honored with the name of Christ, accord- 
ing to the voice [oracle], saying to them, ' Touch not my 
Christs, and do no injury among my prophets;' so that 
we most clearly conclude that the first, most venerable 
and ancient discovery of piety — that of the friends of 
God in the time of Abraham —is the same which is now 
published to all nations in the teaching of Christ." 

5. " At a certain time, long afterwards, they say Abra- 
ham received the commandment of circumcision ; but before 
this, it was testified that he had received righteousness 
by faith. The divine word expressly says, 'Abraham 
believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteous- 
ness ; ' and the oracle of God which showed itself to him 
before circumcision, was Christ the word of God. He 
declares again concerning those to be justified in later 
times in the same manner with him, 'All the tribes of the 
earth shall be blessed by you ; ' and again, ' When he shall 
become a great and mighty nation, all the nations of the 
earth shall be blessed by him.' We understand this since 
it is fulfilled in us ; for he [Abraham] indeed was justified 
by his faith in what appeared to him, the word of God, 



CHAPTER X. 133 

the Christ ; and having abandoned the demon worship of 
his fathers, and the previous error of his life, confessed one 
God over all, and served him by works of virtue, and not 
by the observance of the law of Moses, which was [given] 
after this. To him, being of this character, it was said, 
All the tribes of the earth and all nations shall be blessed 
by you. But that kind of piety which was exhibited by 
Abraham, is practised by works, greater and more effi- 
cacious than words, by Christians alone in all the world. 
What, then, prevents us from acknowledging that we 
have one and the same life and piety with the friends of 
God anciently, so that [our religion] is not new and 
strange, but is the first and only true religion given us 
by the teaching of Jesus Christ." 

6. Eusebius holds the doctrine of Jesus as the Christ of 
the Jewish sacred books, and argues it in Chapter I to III, 
on grounds that are not satisfactory. So far his doctrine 
is erroneous, and departs from the teachings of Jesus as 
inferred from the first three Gospels ; but he correctly 
apprehends his religion, both as that of the earliest good 
and true men, and of nature and reason. His erroneous 
estimates appear to be erroneous by the insufficiency of 
the evidence by which they are supported, and his correct 
judgments are capable of being fully verified. 

7. His arguments for the preexistence and Messiahship 
of Jesus are not satisfactory ; neither is supported by 
the evidence adduced, but the character of his religion is 
correctly stated, as a system of ijractical righteousness. 
Ail unwarranted assumptions connected with it were 
foreign elements, to be rejected as fast as knowledge 
should advance. 

8. Eusebius represents Christians as a nationality. The 
Greek and other Oriental churches are nations. The Ro- 
man church is national and imperial, designed to command 
the world ; the church of England and many other Prot- 

12 



134 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

estant churches are national ; the Congregational churches 
alone are parochial. Independency has rested its claims 
hitherto on apostolic precedent ; it requires to be rejudged 
on the ground of expediency, and admits of being national- 
ized by representative associations. Congregationalism 
has the element of independence and self-government, 
and would not lose either, by nationalization with rep- 
resentative governments. Might not the Congregational 
churches of different nations unite to advantage in 
national organizations ? We think they might, and that 
such organizations are imperatively demanded. Every 
year that they are neglected is attended with irreparable 
losses. 

Astronomy did not begin with Copernicus ; natural 
philosophy with Newton ; higher philosophy with Bacon 
and Locke ; nor true religion with Jesus ; but each of 
these great lights inaugurated a new era in his depart- 
ment of inquiry. 

9. There is no occasion to resort to supernaturalism to 
explain the preeminence of Jesus ; it required no super- 
naturalism for Copernicus to demonstrate the revolutions 
of the earth and relative immobility of the heavens; 
Newton, the law of gravitation, as in the inverse ratio of 
the squares of the distances of bodies ; or Bacon and 
Locke, the laws of reasoning, knowledge, and mind ; just 
as little does it require supernaturalism to enable Jesus to 
construct his system of righteousness in opposition to 
all shams and unfounded pretensions. Copernicus rea- 
soned on the earth and heavenly bodies ; Newton, on the 
motions of bodies ; Bacon and Locke, on the laws of 
reasoning, knowledge, and the human mind ; and Jesus, on 
the laws of God. Each made great discoveries, and pro- 
posed great improvements. 

10. To be judged properly, Jesus must be judged 
relatively, and compared with other discoverers and 



CHAPTER X. 135 

reformers who have given new directions to human 
thought. Like them, he was first an observer, learner, 
and reasoner, profiting by masters and teachers, and pro- 
ceeding from lower and more limited, to higher and more 
extended views. He was a progressive ; saw more the 
longer he looked, and reached new results by new and ex- 
tended reasonings ; he was wiser at twenty-five than at 
twenty, and at thirty, than twenty-five. Socrates originat- 
ed courses of thought and inquiry which men have since 
followed ; so did Aristotle, Copernicus, Xewton, Bacon, 
and Locke : Jesus did the same in a preeminent degree, 
and is known chiefly by his religion. This is represented 
with considerable diversity in the Christian sacred books, 
but its respect for natural law, and contempt of all human 
authorities, stand out with a degree of prominence that 
precludes mistake or misapprehension. 

11. Judaism claimed to be of divine origin and per- 
manent obligation. The Greeks and Romans had many 
gods and goddesses. Zeus reigned supreme in heaven, 
Pluto in hades, and Neptune in the sea. Troops of assist- 
ant gods filled the universe, and were every where in 
attendance on their respective duties. Jesus rejected 
polytheism, led an advance from Judaism, and instituted 
a new and final religion. He abandoned the extravagant 
pretensions and oppressive exactions of Judaism, discarded 
the Greek and Roman polytheisms, and instituted a ra- 
tional worship of the Supreme, without priests, without 
altars and sacrifices, without temples and sacred en- 
closures, and without rites and ceremonies. Its only 
requirement was righteousness, and its only law the law 
of righteousness as revealed in the actual government 
of the world, and deduced from facts. This was a great 
step in human progress, and is celebrated in the first Gos- 
pel, and commemorated by Christianity itself. 

12. But how Jesus attained the mighty conception, by 



136 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

what steps he advanced out of the darkness and confusions 
of the times into his divine light, and in what order he 
first abandoned the cherished theories of a thousand 
generations, and reconstructed a religious and moral sys- 
tem on the basis of evidence, appears but imperfectly in 
the sacred books. 

13. The founders of new religions are not numerous ; 
China produced Confucius ; Media, Zoroaster ; and India, 
Buddha ; Moses arose among the Hebrews in Egypt, and 
Jesus is the gift of God from Nazareth in Galilee. Mo- 
hammed followed the corruptions of Christianity, some 
of which he rejected, but did little to establish truth and 
reason in their just ascendency. The other religions have 
had their day ; some of them have passed away, and 
some are in fatal declines. The religion of Jesus has 
passed through great changes, and is professed and main- 
tained with great diversities of character and excellence. 
It has tried many fruitless and unprofitable experiments, 
and is still persisting in many of them, but is also awak- 
ing to new light and life, and commencing a new cycle 
of changes, in which it promises to secure the eman- 
cipation of the world from superstition and oppression, 
and fill it with virtue and happiness. 

14. Jesus prosecuted his work only by taking his life in 
his hand, and was soon called to resign it on the pious 
pretexts of Judaic conservatism and intolerance. He 
asked for no sceptre, and aspired to no crown ; but made 
his humble office of teacher nobler than that of king or 
messiah. His scheme was imperfectly apprehended by 
his disciples ; he may have asserted it cautiously, or not 
at all, the better to cope with prevailing prejudice and 
injustice. With the fate of Socrates among the Greeks, 
and the bloody history of his own nation, which made 
the Supreme the patron of persecution, before him, he 
would easily divine the perils of his task 5 and is rep- 



CHAPTER. XI. 137 

resented to have done so by frequent predictions of his 
death ; bat no danger appalled him or turned him aside 
from his mission. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Celibacy of Jesus, and his law of marriage and monachism. : 

1. The celibacy of Jesus is one of the important 
features of his life. No satisfactory account is given of 
it in the sacred books. The first Gospel describes him as 
extremely diligent and laborious in his profession, sur- 
rounded by friends and pupils, and accompanied on his 
journey to Jerusalem by distinguished and pious women, 
who witnessed his crucifixion, followed him to the tomb, 
and were only prevented from giving further attention to 
his remains by their disappearance. Mark 15 : 40, 41, 47 ; 
16 : 1-8. He lived on the proceeds of his profession as 
a healer and teacher ; but of these no account is taken in 
the sacred books. It is not probable that his remuneration 
bore any just proportion to the magnitude and value of 
his services ; and the third Gospel represents him as per- 
forming his work in the lowest circumstances of indigence. 
Luke 9 : 57, 58. 

2. Voluntary celibacy was in high repute among the 
Essenes, and many practised it. Jesus does not enjoin 
it on all his disciples indiscriminately, but according to 
the second Gospel, commends it as a superior condition 
for those who have the self-command to enjoy it. 
Matt. 19 : 10-12. Jesus condemns the Judaic system of 
divorces, and according to the first Gospel makes mar- 
riage indissoluble, and according to the second, allows it 
to be dissolved for fornication. Indissoluble marriages, 
and such as can be dissolved only for adultery, are liable 
to be extremely oppressive and injurious. There are two 
errors in respect to divorces : 1. That of allowing them for 

12 * 



138 CEITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

insufBcient reasons ; 2. That of not allowing them for suf- 
ficient reasons. Both are wrong. Adulteries are not 
always sufficient reasons for divorces, and other crimes 
sometimes are. The Mosaic institutions erred by allow- 
ing husbands to divorce their wives at will, on the most 
frivolous pretexts ; and Jesus is made to commit the 
opposite error, by allowing no divorces according to the 
first Gospel, and according to the second admitting them 
only for fornication, Justice and mercy require them in 
many other cases as imperatively as against adultery. 

3. From the absence of any information on the subject, 
the celibacy of Jesus must be presumed to be prudential ; 
depending on circumstances. The demands of his pro- 
fession as a travelling healer and teacher, and the founder 
of a religion, may have withheld him from marriage. His 
celibacy may also have been designed to be temporary, 
and but for his early martyrdom he may have blessed a 
wife with his companionship, and the world with his 
children, and founded a nobler family than Abraham. . 

4. A similar reason of expediency is to be assigned for 
the celibacy of Paul. Every age furnishes examples of 
the kind ; Jesus and Paul may have been compensated 
for the surrender of domestic happiness by the intense 
affection with which they served the new religion and its 
adherents. The church became their love, and the 
widest philanthropy took possession of their emotional 
powers. The collective body of the disciples of Jesus 
occupied the place of a bride, and possibly left no room 
for female companionship. The most eminent patriots 
and philanthropists are men with families ; but the early 
development of an intense and absorbing interest in a 
great religious reformation, might easily become so com- 
manding as to supersede the common attachments of men, 
and render the marriage connection inexpedient and im- 
practicable. In such cases, it is no self-denial for persons 



CHAPTEB XII. 139 

to abstain from marriage ; they do it from choice, and in 
submission to their higher affections. Such cases, however, 
are scarcely normal, and seem to be exceptions to be 
tolerated, and not rules to be generally followed. 

5. The monachism which Jesus practised and com- 
mended is of this natural and reasonable kind. It does 
not appear to have been constrained, but depended on 
natural impulses, and the influence of circumstances. 
Marriage is the oldest, noblest, and most beneficent of social 
institutions. It is suited to the nature of man in his 
normal state, and favors the propagation and improve- 
ment of the race. It cannot be disparaged or dispensed 
with ; and any theory that regards it with disrespect as a 
condition to be tolerated from necessity, and not sup- 
ported from choice, is false and injurious. 



CHAPTER XII. 

John the Baptist and Jesus as reported by Josephus. 

1. Josephus was a younger contemporary of the apos- 
tles, and wrote an elaborate history of his nation and 
their ancestors, from the supposed beginning of the world, 
till the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, under 
Titus, in A. D. 70. We are indebted to him for much of 
our knowledge of his times, and of those immediately 
preceding. He tells us that there were three leading 
sects of the Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, 
and describes their principles and habits. The Pharisees 
were superstitious literalists, the Sadducees, free-thinking 
skeptics, and the Essenes, fanatical ascetics ; but all were 
Jews, and supported Jewish civilization as of divine 
authority, and permanent obligation. It had come from 
God, was the perfection of wisdom, and was to last 
forever. He tells of John the Baptist, and also of several 



140 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

false prophets and Christs, and gives us a complete his- 
tory of Jewish affairs. 

2. He tells us (A. J. 18, 5, 1, 2,) of a disastrous war of 
Herod Antipas with Aretas king of Arabia, and relates 
the opinion of the Jew^s, that its disasters were divine 
judgments on Herod for the murder of John. He then 
tells us that John was a good man, urging the Jews to 
practise virtue and righteousness, and come to his bap- 
tism ; and that they came in crowds. Herod Antipas 
feared his great influence with the people, and first im- 
prisoned him at the castle of Machaerus, and then killed 
him. Machaerus was east of the Jordan, and nearly east 
from Jerusalem, on the ancient Baaras, a stream that 
empties into the Dead Sea, remote from the capital of 
Antipas, and far beyond the confines of Galilee. The 
account of Josephus respecting John's imprisonment and 
death, agrees with the New Testament only in part ; and 
one of them must have fictitious elements. 

3. A notice of Jesus precedes (A. J. 18, 3, 3), and is as 
follows : "And it came to pass about this time, that there 
was Jesus, a w r ise man, [if it is proper to call him a man], 
a performer of incredible works, [a teacher of men who 
receive the truth with pleasure, who led after him both 
many Jews and also many from the Greeks. This man 
w T as the Christ.] And when Pilate condemned him to 
the cross, according to information from the first men 
with us, those who loved him at first ceased not [to follow 
him, for he appeared to them on the third day, living 
again. The divine prophets said these and many other 
wonderful things concerning him], and the tribe called 
Christians have not departed from him to this day." 
[95 A. D.] 

4. This passage is quoted by Eusebius, 330 A. D., in his 
Eccl. Hist. 1, 11, &c. Its genuineness was first ques- 
tioned 355 years ago in 1509, a few years before the 



CHAPTER XII. 141 

Protestant reformation. Since then it has been rejected 
by the most eminent scholars as wholly or in part spu- 
rious. The arguments against it are as follows : 

I. It is never mentioned previous to Eusebius in the 
first part of the fourth Christian century. If authentic, 
it was a very important admission, and could not have 
been neglected and passed over in silence by the apol- 
ogists and controversial writers of the first three Christian 
centuries. 

II. It is too brief to be genuine. If Josephus admitted 
so much in favor of Jesus, he ought to have described 
his teachings and doings which he regards as so re- 
markable. They were far more important than those of 
the Pharisees or Essenes. 

5. III. The passage is contrary to the faith of Josephus 
as a Jew and Pharisee, and makes him inconsistent with 
himself. It expresses the view of Jesus that was taken 
by Christians, but not by Jews. Josephus concurred with 
other Jews of his time in denying that Jesus was the 
Christ, or his religion entitled to general acceptance. 
He cannot therefore have written this notice, and it is 
out of place in his works. Two suppositions respecting 
it are possible : 1. That it is wholly interpolated ; 2. That 
it is partly genuine, and modified by Christian glosses. 
The second of these hypotheses is adopted by Gieseler 
and others, and the portions which they judge to be 
spurious are included in brackets in the above. It is pos- 
sible that Josephus noticed Jesus as a wise man, like 
John the Baptist ; but this was not the Jewish estimate 
of him; the Jews regarded him as a bad man, and 
most unwise. Josephus mentions John the Baptist only 
incidentally, to explain the supposed cause of Herod's 
disasters. No such occasion is taken for the mention of 
Jesus ; the passage relating to him is entirely independ- 
ent of the context, and may be omitted without breaking 
the thread of the history. 



142 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

6. It is incredible that a Pharisee should mention Jesus 
as a wise man without protesting against his religion. 
Josephus described the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes 
as Jewish sects ; Christians he ignores, apparently as not 
a Jewish sect. They had much in common with the 
Jews, but repudiated Judaic despotism and superstition, 
and adopted freedom and truth in their place. The 
Church History of Eusebius is the oldest work of the kind 
that has been preserved. It makes large extracts from 
earlier works, many of which have perished, but is not 
fully reliable for the genuineness of its anterior documents. 
Its correspondence of Jesus with Abgarus, ruler of Edessa, 
east of the higher Euphrates, and its account of the mis- 
sion of Thaddeus, one of the seventy disciples, to that 
country, are both fictitious ; and yet Eusebius professes to 
copy them from the public records of Edessa, and trans- 
late them from the Syriac. Eccl. Hist. 1, 13. This 
cannot be correct ; and if Eusebius allowed himself to 
report the public records of Edessa incorrectly, he may 
have done the same in regard to Josephus. 

7. The passage in Josephus is interpolated, and the 
interpolation is first quoted as genuine by Eusebius. It 
may have originated with an earlier editor, and Eusebius 
may not have been aware of its spurious character, but it 
more probably originated with him. When once admit- 
ted, it easily held its place, and was extended to other 
copies as bqing conformable to the general belief. No 
critical canons of the times required its rejection. The 
principles of historic criticism were yet unknown, and 
even in our times are greatly neglected by biblical critics 
and inquirers. 

8. Chrysostom, after Eusebius, mentions Josephus sev- 
eral times, and quotes his account of John the Baptist, 
but is silent in respect to any thing concerning Jesus. 
Chrysostom was a distinguished scholar, zealous Christian 



CHAPTER XIII. 143 

ascetic, bishop, and controversial writer, who embraced 
monastic life at the age of 20, spent four years in the 
mountains with an aged Christian hermit, and two in a 
cave as a solitary, after which he was made a deacon at 
Antioch in 381, at the age of 27, and exalted to the 
patriarchate of Constantinople in 398, His austerity 
made him unpopular, and he was deposed and banished 
in 403, and died in 407, at the age of 82. The works of 
Chrysostom are numerous and valuable, but contain no 
reference to this passage. His silence on the subject 
indicates that in his time the interpolation of Eusebius 
was not generally received. Its universal acceptance in 
later times is accounted for by its conformity with sup- 
posed facts, and proves nothing against the considerations 
indicating its spurious character. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Personal appearance of Jesus. 

1. The earliest Christians thought the appearance of 
Jesus unattractive, according to Isa. 53 : 2, 3. This is the 
view of Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen ; 
Jerome, in the fourth century, gives him great beauty and 
majesty, on the authority of the Messianic psalms. In 
this Augustine and others concur. Jerome was made a 
presbyter at Antioch about 378 A. D., died at a con- 
vent in Bethlehem in 420, at the age of 90, and was the 
best informed of all the Latin fathers. Augustine was 
made bishop of Hippo, in Africa, in 395, and died in 430, 
aged 76. Pictures of Jesus were made and attributed 
to Luke, as early as 518 A. D. Xo authentic likeness 
of him appears at an earlier period. 

2. The epistle of P. Lentulus to the Roman senate is 
unnoted in the earliest times ; it describes Jesus as follows : 



144 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

" Lentulus, president of the Jerusalemites S. P. Q. Ro- 
man S. At this time has appeared and is yet [with us], 
a man of great virtue [power], named Christ Jesus, who 
is called by the Gentiles a prophet of truth, and by his 
disciples a son of God ; he raises the dead and cures the 
feeble. The man is of great height, fine appearance, 
and has a venerable countenance, and all who see, both 
love -and fear him. His hair stands out and is crisped ; it 
is sky-colored and brilliant, and flows loose from his 
shoulders. He has it separated in the middle of his head 
like the Nazarenes. His forehead is smooth and most 
serene, and his face without a wrinkle or spot, and slightly 
flushed with red. His nose and mouth are faultless, and 
his beard copious and red, of the color of his hair. It is 
short and biforked, and his eyes are gray and clear. In 
rebuke, he is terrible, but in admonition, mild and amiable. 
He combines hilarity with gravity, and has never been 
seen to laugh, but often to weep. He is tall, with long 
hands and limbs, and beautiful to see. He is mighty in 
discourse, sparing of words, and modest, and is the most 
beautiful among the sons of men. Farewell." See Bib. 
Repository, vol. ii. p. 367-393. 

3. The earliest notice of this letter claims that it was 
found in the annals of the Romans by Eutropius. There 
is no P. Lentulus among the procurators of Judaea, and 
this letter is entirely unknown to the church fathers. It 
cannot have any considerable antiquity, and is entitled to 
little respect. But the personal appearance of Jesus is 
a subject of considerable interest to all who appreciate 
his true character as the noblest of men ; to those who 
make him a god, it is of no account. He was undoubtedly 
beautiful and majestic, and his countenance radiant with 
intelligence and pure affections. To great benignity he 
also added great courage and determination. In gentle- 
ness he was a lamb, in steadiness and firmness a rock, as 



CHAPTER XIII. 145 

immovable as the Infinite on whom he rested. The in- 
spiring and informing soul is the principle of all superior 
human beauty, and invests any countenance through 
which it shines, with a divine brilliancy and glory. 

4. Some miraculous pictures of Jesus have appeared, 
the most j-emarkable of which was sent to his contem- 
porary and friend Abgarus, ruler- of Eclessa, and a miracu- 
lous copy of it was brought to Constantinople by order 
of the emperor Nlcephorus in 968 A. D. A picture 
painted by Luke first appears in 518 ; pictures of Mary 
and the principal apostles appear later. The common 
pictures of Jesus are monuments of the low state of 
Christian art at the time when they were accepted. They 
are excessively tame and spiritless, infinitely inferior to 
the Greek ideals of their principal gods, and far below 
their most illustrious men. It is difficult to find so poor 
a figure in the whole gallery of Grecian and Roman 
worthies. 

5. It has been a great mistake to make so much of the 
crucifixion as has been done. Jesus on the cross excels 
other sufferers but little ; many brave souls have died 
nobly and magnanimously ; his great preeminence is in 
the capacity of teacher ; in this he led all men, and stands 
first in the annals of time. No worthy picture of Jesus 
has yet been produced, and none is possible which does 
not represent him as a religious teacher and discoverer, 
receiving and propounding great ideas. Those who wish 
to have a conception of him as he appeared to his con- 
temporaries, in distinction from all other men, had better 
get it from Homer, Aristotle, or Caesar, with variations. 
The representations of him generally accepted must be 
as unlike him as possible. 

6. The artist that at this late period will give us a 
Jesus comparable to Homer, Herodotus, or Caesar, will 
confer an infinite benefit on Christendom, and obtain 

13 



146 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

extensive patronage. It is time that we had a picture of 
Jesus worthy of him. Such a picture would do much 
good ; it must be no Jesus in repose, nor in suffering and 
anguish ; neither should it represent him in the fictitious 
works of calming a tempest on the sea, or raising the 
dead by a command. It should represent him as a 
teacher and propounder of great ideas, declaring the law 
of love and righteousness, denouncing ceremonialism, or 
reproving ambition and partialism, and proposing his new 
religion. Jesus in his great works of instruction might 
be made the central figure of the finest historic picture 
ever conceived ; and Jesus single might justly be clothed 
with every attribute of power and grandeur that is pos- 
sible to mortal. 

7. Heads of Jesus first appear on the coins of the later 
Roman emperors, with the title of King of kings ; no 
portraits or figures of him have survived from his times. 
This is much to be regretted, and the loss can only be 
partially repaired by ideals. We commend the subject to 
the masters of the pictorial art, in the hope that it will 
receive their attention. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Morality of Jesus. 

1. Morality is derived from the Latin mos, manner, 
through the adjective moralis, pertaining to manners. It 
denotes, 1. Voluntary actions considered generally as a 
system of actions ; 2. The science of voluntary actions, in 
distinction from necessary ; 3. Right voluntary actions. 
In the second sense it is synonymous with ethics, from the 
Greek ethos, manner, custom, habit. The English lan- 
guage derives most of its scientific terms from the Greek, 
but morality is one of a few which it takes from the 



CHAPTER XIV. 147 

Latin, to the neglect of the corresponding Greek terra. 
Both are used, but morality takes the lead, and is in con- 
stant use, while ethics is used but seldom, and hardly 
enters into the language of common life. 

2. Voluntary actions are performed to attain good and 
avoid evil. Good and evil are happiness and misery, and 
the means of happiness and misery. Inferior good is 
relative evil, and inferior evil, relative good. Agents who 
find good in the same and similar objects, sometimes com- 
pete injuriously with each other, and some find their good 
in the destruction of others, both of their own species and 
of different species. A vast destruction of animals is con- 
stantly going on by this means. The wisest and strongest 
devour the simpler and weaker, expel them from places 
which they wish to occupy, and sometimes extirpate them. 
Man competes with all species of animals, and destroys 
them at pleasure. He raises and serves the ox for his 
labor, the cow for her milk and young, and the sheep for 
his fleece ; and then kills and eats them all. Against 
him they have no protection nor redress. It is different 
with men ; they may be enslaved, worked, killed, and 
eaten, but these injuries cannot be inflicted with per- 
manent advantage to the masters, and are followed with 
severe retaliations and punishments. Men are of a nature 
loo high and noble to allow such subordination, and 
though it has often been attempted and pursued for a 
time, it is always ultimately disastrous, and is abandoned 
when any considerable culture is attained. Culture leads 
men to respect each other, and be provident of happiness. 
The happiness and well-being of each is the interest 
of all. 

3. Men divide the absolute dominion of inferior beings 
among them by compacts and arrangements, but concede 
to each other inviolable rights. They unite together in 
families, tribes, states, and nations, for their mutual good, 



148 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

and prescribe laws for the government of their corpora- 
tions, adapted to secure benefits and prevent injuries. 
Each family, tribe, state, and nation is a corporation, and 
has a corporate authority and power, which it uses on the 
same principles as individuals. 

4. The human race is yet in its infancy, and has not per- 
fected its methods. It has tried many unprofitable and 
disastrous experiments, and is working its way to a 
correct knowledge and just views of its interests and 
duties. Some imagine that the same destructive com- 
petition is allowed between individuals and nations of the 
human race, as between animals ; and that the wise may 
prey upon the simple, and the strong on the weak, to 
their advantage. But this is a mistake. 

5. Men have capacities and powers which render their 
uncompensated and unequal subjection to the good of 
others inexpedient and impracticable. They require to 
be dealt with as the subjects of inalienable rights to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No such concession 
is demanded in favor of animals. 

6. It has been questioned why animals are created to 
prey on each other, and to be preyed upon by men. The 
arrangement has an appearance of cruelty incompatible 
with the divine goodness. No satisfactory explanation 
of it has been reached. It is a fact, and we are obliged to 
admit it, as conformable to the Creator's will. But it is 
equally clear that men are elevated to a different plane, 
and subjected to a higher law with respect to each other, 
which allows none to prey on others, or pursue destructive 
competitions and rivalships with them. The strong may 
not kill the weak, nor those in advantageous positions, 
such as are placed in their power. Men are subject to a 
law of equality, which, amid all possible diversities of 
character and position, requires them to treat their fellows 
with kindness and good will. Under this law, injustice 



CHAPTEE XIV. 149 

and oppression are as inexpedient for the perpetrators as 
they are injurious to the victims. 

7. The pursuit of good has its essential laws and prin- 
ciples, from which it cannot depart, and conflicting 
interests are adjusted and reconciled by subordinating 
lower to, higher, temporary to permanent, individual to 
social, and creature interests to those of the Creator. The 
subordination of the creature to the Creator grows out of 
his relations as depending on him. Individual interests 
must be in harmony with those of societies, and creature 
interests with those of the Creator. 

8. Individuals are members of families, states, nations, 
and worlds, and have the whole to serve ; in return for 
which, they are served by the whole ; and if they refuse 
to perform required services, and inflict injuries, the 
injured parties withhold beneficial services, and inflict 
injuries in return. The family protects its members to 
the 'extent of its ability, the state and nation, to the 
extent of their abilities, and God presides over the whole 
with the resources of infinite wisdom, goodness, and 
power, at his command. 

9. The Hebrews discovered many duties and sins, and 
led the world in several great improvements and reforms. 
They abandoned the marriage of near relations, idolatry, 
polytheism, and human sacrifices ; worshipped one su- 
preme God, and adopted many principles of piety and 
virtue. Their good actions embraced much that was 
good; but their morality had great imperfections. The 
Mosaic laws are the oldest and most venerable that have 
come down to us, and are claimed to have proceeded 
directly from God. They commence with the ten com- 
mandments, which are essentially as follows : — 

1. Have no other gods before me ; 

2. Worship not idols ; 

3. Honor your father and mother ; 

13* 



150 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

4. Take not the name of God in vain ; 

5. Keep the Sabbath as a holy day ; 

6. Kill not your fellow-man ; 

7. Commit not adultery ; 

8. Steal not ; «-_ 

9. Testify not falsely against your neighbor ; 

10. Desire not inordinately your neighbor's property 
and possessions. 

10. These commandments are restricted to ten, not as ex- 
hausting the leading duties and sins, of which men are 
subjects, but apparently to correspond to the ten fingers 
on which they were counted anterior to writing. They 
enjoin obvious duties and prohibit obvious sins, and 
require no voices nor angels from other worlds to make 
them known. 

11. The ten commandments are much admired, and 
have done good service to the cause of correct morals. 
They enjoin important duties, and prohibit great sins, but 
are far from being a complete moral code. They teach 
the cardinal virtues of truth, justice, and mercy, only by 
implication; and charity, kindness, benevolence, friendship, 
liberality, gratitude, patience, courage, fortitude, mag- 
nanimity, and many other virtues, they entirely ignore, 
as they do the corresponding vices. All laws which de- 
scribe human duties, emanate from God, and are as clearly 
deducible from observation and experience as the law of 
gravitation. God executes his laws, shows them in force, 
and enables men to learn them by seeing their execution. 

12. After the ten commandments in Ex. 20 : 2-17, fol- 
low laws respecting servants, offences, and yearly festivals, 
21 : 1-23 : 33 ; directions for making the sacred taber- 
nacle, 25 : 1-31 : 18 ; laws respecting sacrifices, purifica- 
tions, consecrations of priests, marriage, and crimes and 
misdemeanors, and the Nazarites, Lev. 1 : 1-15 : 33. 
Some of the Mosaic laws are injurious and oppressive, 



CHAPTER XIV. 151 

and many of their punishments cruel and sanguinary. The 
prohibition of interest for the use of money was a great 
financial mistake, and must have done incalculable harm. 
Systematic persecution for religious errors was a fun- 
damental and false principle in the Mosaic institutes. Jesus 
was one of the victims of this injustice, and the system 
was adopted from Judaism by the Roman Catholic church 
and other Christian bodies, and made the occasion of the 
destruction of millions. God never commanded such 
oppression, but the contrary. 

13. Judging the God of the Hebrews from the Mosaic 
laws, the Gnostics of the second and third Christian cen- 
turies concluded that he was of a mixed character, partly 
good and partly evil, and of very imperfect wisdom and 
judgment. The correct conclusion is, that these laws are 
not his, but were attributed to him by a mistake. God 
cannot be judged from them, but must be judged from 
his own authentic publications, which belong to all coun- 
tries and ages, and in regard to which there can be no 
mistake. 

14. Aristotle, the greatest of the Greek moralists, be- 
gins his ethics by proposing the greatest good as the 
object of all human actions, and commending a knowledge 
and consideration of it. Ethics, according to him, is the 
art of obtaining the greatest possible good from human 
actions. He discusses it with the same thoroughness and 
precision as he does other subjects. His theory of logic 
is not more t demonstrative than his theory of morals. 
The object of agriculture is to obtain the greatest possible 
good from the field, that of horticulture from the garden, 
and that of politics, from the state. So, ethics, according 
to him, is the art of obtaining the greatest possible good 
from human actions. He considers men both singly and 
in societies, and determines the laws of their well being. 
His list of virtues is as follows : — 



152 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 



1. Courage. 


10. [Just] indignation. 


2. Temperance. 


11. Justice. 


3. Liberality. 


12. Art. 


4. Magnificence. 


13. Science. 


5. Magnanimity. 


14. Prudence. 


6. Love of power. 


15. Intuition. 


7. Meekness. 


16. Candor. 


8. Urbanity. 


17. Continence. 


9. Modesty. 


18. Friendship. 



15. Aristotle's ethics is not complete or perfect, but 
is a commencement of the science of human actions, 
and of the art of pursuing the best and noblest. 

16. John the Baptist preached against sins, and urged 
men to abandon them for duties ; Jesus did the same. 
John washed his disciples in the Jordan ; Jesus discarded 
all sacred ablutions, and enjoined only righteousness. He 
specifies as sins to be renounced, Mark 7 : 21-23, " evil 
purposes, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, eovetous- 
ness, malice, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, envy, 
blasphemy, pride." He requires men to pursue the right 
at every expense, Mark 8 : 34-37; 9:43-48; 10:28-30, 
and enjoins prayer; faith in God, and forgiveness of in- 
juries. Jesus accepts the Jewish Sabbath as a day of 
religious instruction and public worship, but rejects the 
superstitious strictness of the Jews in observing it. He 
allows his disciples to pick and shell grain, and attends 
faithfully to the sick on that day. The morality of Jesus 
is to a great extent a protest against Judaic immorality 
and superstition, in favor of real righteousness. The 
Christian Sabbath is an apostolic institution not thought 
of till after the death of Jesus. It occupies the place of 
the Jewish Sabbath, and serves to discriminate Christianity 
more widely from Judaism than would otherwise have 
been done. The authority of the Christian Sabbath de- 
pends on the consent of Christendom, and its observance 
is justified by its uses. 



CHAPTER XI Y. 153 

17. The morality of Jesus is less fully developed in the 
first Gospel than in the others and the Epistles. His 
change of mind in Mark 1 : 15 is the same as that of John 
the Baptist, and has been supposed to be repentance. 
Regret for past misdeeds is proper and useful, but stops 
far short of reformation. It is no part of reformation, 
but one- of the providential punishments of sin. Men 
submit to it by the same necessity by which they submit 
to pain, or regret the loss of limb. The change of mind 
preached by John and Jesus, is a change of volition and 
purpose, from the choice of evil to that of good, far ex- 
ceeding the bitterest regrets that were ever felt, both in 
its value and effects. 

18. Mark 1 : 15 inculcates faith by requiring men to 
believe in the good news. Faith is much insisted on in 
the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament ; and a 
belief of the truth on the ground of evidence is a great 
duty. Faith is the companion and leader of knowledge, 
and the duty of believing is analogous to that of hearing 
and knowing, with which it has intimate affinities. We 
have a great interest in receiving and knowing the truth, 
and in rejecting errors and delusions. All reasonable 
faiths are useful, but those which pertain to God and his 
government are indispensably necessary. We cannot 
neglect to attain them without doing ourselves the greatest 
harm. The superstitious observance of the Sabbath is 
opposed in Mark 2 : 23-28, and is confronted with the 
statement that the Sabbath is made for man, and not 
man for the Sabbath. Fasts are disparaged as unsuitable 
to times of prosperity and happiness, and left to the dis- 
cretion of the suffering. Mark 2 : 18-22. 

19. Imputing the gracious works of God to demons is 
denounced as a grievous sin, Mark 3 : 28-30 ; baptisms 
are disparaged, and with them all ceremonies and sub- 
stitutes for the real laws of God, Mark 7 : 1-23. Men 



154 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

are instructed to follow Jesus at the peril of their lives, 
Mark 8 : 34-38 ; and are taught to avoid ambition, to be 
kind to infants, and to perform the smallest services for 
each other, in the expectation of great rewards from God, 
Mark 9 : 33-41. They are taught not to lead others into 
sin, and to avoid all occasions of falling into it themselves, 
Mark 9 : 42-50. Mark 10 : 2-12 condemns divorces, and 
prohibits them entirely ; Matt. 19:9 allows them for for- 
nication ; justice and mercy demand them for several 
other reasons. Riches are regarded as dangerous, Mark 
10 : 23 ; ambition is reproved, Mark 10 : 35-45 ; and men 
are warned against being misled, Mark 13 : 5, 6. 

20. The morality of Jesus is summarily comprehended 
in Mark 13 : 30, 31, in the injunctions, Love God with all 
your heart and soul, and your neighbor as yourself. 
These are most important divine laws, and have proved 
of great use. The second is presented in another form 
in the second Gospel, as the golden rule : " Do to others 
as you would that they should do to you." Love is the 
fulfilling of the whole law, and is justly much insisted 
upon every where in the New Testament. The highest 
duty we owe both to God and man is to love them. 
Nothing else can supply the place of love, or compensate 
for its deficiencies ; and love being present, induces all 
other right and noble actions. 

21. The answer of Jesus to the captious question re- 
specting paying tribute to Caesar, in Mark 12 : 17, "Give 
Caesar's dues to Caesar, and God's to God," recognizes all 
human authorities as subordinate to God. Caesars are to 
be loved and served in subordination to the Supreme. 

22. The early Christians adopted many correct prin- 
ciples from the Hebrew sacred books, and supplemented 
them by drawing freely from the writings of the Greeks, 
especially from Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and their schools. 
The Gospels contain no general scheme of duties and 



CHAPTER XV. 155 

sins ; and virtues and vices are not mentioned in them. 
Paul takes strong ground against vicious appetites, and 
opposes them with great energy. His doctrine of the 
antagonism of the flesh and spirit is founded od the pre- 
dominance of appetites. 

23. The first Gospel has no teaching on the subject of 
war ; the third makes John the Baptist instruct soldiers, 
Luke 3 : 14, " Strike terror into no man, slander none, 
and be content with your wages [rations]." This is am- 
biguous, but does not imply a condemnation of war as 
essentially wrong. If John had judged it to be so, he 
ought to have advised soldiers to abandon the profession. 
Matt. 5 : 38-42, "Resist not evil," &c, is supposed by 
many to advise absolute non-resistance, precluding both 
private contests and wars. Some early Christians may 
have held that doctrine, as some moderns do ; but the pas- 
sage is more correctly understood to inculcate great 
forbearance and patience under ill usage, without enjoin- 
ing absolute submission to the greatest injuries. The 
bold and determined resistance of great injuries attempted 
to be inflicted on ourselves, families, countries, and the 
human race, is generally regarded not only as right and 
necessary, but noble and magnanimous. Xeither private 
contests nor wars, however, are justifiable or useful, except 
where milder methods are impracticable, and when re- 
sorted to unnecessarily, are often much greater evils than 
they remedy. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Theology of Jesus. 

1. The archaic theologies of Egypt and the East were 
dark and dreary despotisms, superseding the rule of in- 
finite love, with the sceptres of merciless tyrants and 
imperfect creatures. Polytheism admitted conflicting 



156 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION, 

gods and goddesses of limited but fearful powers, and 
made men great sufferers from their ambitions, rivalries, 
jealousies, oppositions, and animosities. The wind wres- 
tled with the primal seas, and brought up savage beasts, 
and still more savage men. The earliest despotisms in 
the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile were stern and 
cruel. 

2. Some of the earliest kings were raised to heaven at 
death, and made celestial gods ; those of a sterner char- 
acter went to hades, and became rulers there. The 
noblest archaic gods were deified men. The Hebrews 
abandoned polytheism for the worship of one Supreme, 
and made him superior to all the rest, but did not at first 
exalt him above human weakness and imperfections. He 
selected. Abraham as his friend, and distinguished him 
from all others in his time ; preferred Jacob to Esau, 
without respect to their doings ; the Hebrews to the Egyp- 
tians and Canaanites, because they were descendants of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; and David to his brothers. 
Some of these preferences appear quite arbitrary and unac- 
countable. 

3. Jeva has the human form, and is the subject of 
violent passions; he is kind and generous to the good, 
but intensely angry at the wicked. He generally com- 
mands the right and forbids the wrong, and is the friend 
and patron of righteousness ; but in some cases he com- 
mands the most flagrant wrongs. His laws are harsh and 
severe, and relate to many frivolous matters ; he addresses 
men sternly as slaves, and not always kindly as children. 
" Obey and live, disobey and die," is the tenor of his law. 
His punishments are sanguinary and cruel, embracing 
maiming, stoning, and burning alive. His cruelties have 
been handed along by Christians, without a perception of 
their essential injustice. They were as real wrongs 
among the Hebrews when perpetrated by the authority 



CHAPTER XV. 157 

of Jeva, as among the Egyptians, Mexicans, and other 
barbarous nations, when practised with the sanction of 
inferior gods. The Hebrew Supreme is an object of in- 
finite terrors, and his religion a religion of fear. Divine 
mercy stood aloof; her day had not come ; justice shone 
dimly through the night of ages, and scarcely penetrated 
it with s ray. Jeva occupied a temple in heaven, and 
was served by celestial beasts and men with abject devo- 
tion, similar to that paid to Eastern tyrants. He had a 
superb throne, and rode in a magnificent chariot drawn 
by winged steeds of great intelligence and lightning speed. 
The earth shook with fear and terror whenever he ap- 
peared ; mountains fled, and seas retired, as he passed 
along. Sometimes he moved in anger, and scattered 
pestilence and consuming fire along his way. 

4. These views of the Supreme have been much admired 
for their beauty and sublimity, and are often introduced 
into the representations of Christians. Nothing can be 
more false ; and a Theban bull and Mendusiao goat are 
scarcely more inadequate and unsuitable representations 
of the infinite. 

5. The Hebrew Jeva was attended with angels in the 
form of men, who carried his messages, reported the state 
of his terrestrial affairs, and executed his judgments ; 
sometimes smiting thousands at a blow, and spreading 
consternation and terror through the world. The old 
Gnostics were not entirely wrong in making the Hebrew 
Jeva of a mixed character, only imperfectly good, and 
accepting Jesus as the minister of a higher divinity. 
Their great mistake was in not apprehending the er- 
roneous character of the Hebrew ideals. This misap- 
prehension was radical and fatal. 

6. The later Hebrew writers make great improvements 
on the older ideal of their Supreme, and admit his omni- 
presence and omniscience. They soften the asperities of 

14 



158 CEITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

his early character, and touch it with many new lines of 
light and love. But Jesus silently repudiates the old 
theology, and gives us a kind and placable supreme father, 
with no savage ferocity or burning anger and ungovern- 
able rage, or destructive indignations and furies. He 
allows the Supreme no temple, or chariot and steeds, and 
propitiates him with no sacrifices, but teaches men to 
honor him with obedience, prayers, thanksgivings, con- 
fessions, and songs of joy and love. 

7. John the Baptist preached a change of mind and a 
religious washing in the Jordan, perhaps in allusion to the 
cleansing of Naaman the Syrian by Elisha, 2 Kings 5 : 1-19. 
The Ganges is still used for the same purpose by religionists 
of India. Jesus, on the contrary, dispensed with religious 
washings and other arbitrary exactions, and demanded only 
righteousness. He followed neither Moses, the prophets, 
nor John, but proposed a new method in advance of all his 
predecessors and contemporaries. 

8. John's meat was locusts, an injurious insect, the 
slaughter of which was the destruction of a pest, and he 
spared harmless animals. His clothing was sackcloth of 
camel's hair, the coarsest material worn, tied around him 
with a belt of skin, perhaps in allusion to the leopard 
skin worn by the more ancient prophets of Egypt and 
the East. He rivalled the Pharisees in fasts, and exceeded 
them in other austerities. He was a pioneer soldier, with 
his axe and shovel, preparing for a coming army, cutting 
down forests, bridging rivers, digging through mountains, 
and filling up ravines. Jesus was a man of peace and 
love. He followed John and the more ancient teachers 
with a gentle step and kind voice, showing the world the 
more excellent ways of knowledge and truth. He was 
not singular in his dress, prescribed no religious uniform, 
was not particular about his food, ate what came to hand^ 
refused not wine and good cheer, feasted with publicans 



CHAPTER XV. 159 

and sinners, and called them to piety, virtue, humani.ty, 
magnanimity, and happiness. He taught men to withdraw 
their attention from things indifferent or of temporary 
interest, and provide mainly for their souls, and for the 
necessities of their immortal natures. He taught them 
always to pursue the good, beneficent, and noble, and to 
refuse the evil. 

9. Previous Jewish religionists deferred to Moses and 
the prophets, and taught according to them ; Jesus de- 
ferred only to God, and taught according to him. He 
reported no visions nor dreams ; the voices from heaven 
at his baptism and transfiguration are authenticated by 
no evidence that removes them from the category of fic- 
tions, where similar incidents belong in other productions. 
They are inventions of the disciples, not of Jesus, and 
are inconsistent with his doctrines and the simplicity and 
directness of his methods. Jesus reports the most im- 
portant oracles from God, but reports them as his common 
teachings, capable of being verified by all pious and ear- 
nest inquirers. Standing with earth's weary millions 
under the dome of the universe, he looks, and reports 
what he sees ; he listens, and declares what he hears ; he 
reasons on the objects of his senses, and asserts the con- 
clusions at which he arrives. He teaches men to reason 
and pursue the truth, and demands that no pet delusions 
may be spared, or slightly inquired into. He sets up no 
false pretences, practises no impositions, and gives no 
credit to time-honored delusions. Science detests false 
pretences, and Jesus is an apostle of science ; reason is 
the minister of truth, and Jesus is thorough and consist- 
ent in his rationalism ; his truths are too grand and 
ennobling to have any communion with imposition. 

10. Theology, from theos, God, and logos, word, sig- 
nifies the science of God, and treats of his existence, 
character, and doings. The doctrine of one supreme 



160 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

being, the creator and supreme ruler of the world, first 
appears among the Hebrews, and is an element of Judaism. 
It passed from Judaism to Christianity, and from Chris- 
tianity to Mohammedanism, and is held by Jews, Chris- 
tians, and Mohammedans. It is opposed to atheism and 
polytheism. Atheism assumes that there is no god, and 
polytheism that there are many gods. Buddhism is a 
system of atheism, allowing the universe to culminate in 
beings of a superior order at distant intervals, but not 
admitting a supreme voluntary creator and ruler. Poly- 
theism admits many superior beings with indefinite pow- 
ers, who divide the government of the world between 
them, and are in some cases the subjects of disastrous 
rivalries and animosities analogous to those of men. 

11. The first Gospel does not make Jesus examine the 
fundamental doctrine of theology, or propose any argu- 
ments in its favor. The existence of God was not 
questioned among the Jews in his time. Great questions 
have their day, sleep for ages till it arrives, and after it 
passes by, resume their sleep. One of the days of this 
question had passed by with the Jews, and another was 
to come with their descendants and the inheritors of their 
sciences and arts. The existence of God is one of the 
questions of Christendom at the present time, and has 
been acutely argued for the last two hundred years. It 
has not attained the clearness desired, but the existence 
of God is admitted by overwhelming majorities, and gen- 
erally accepted as entirely certain. The Old Testament 
assumes it, and is followed by the New in the same 
assumptions. Paul tells us, Rom. 1 : 19, 20, "The knowl- 
edge of God is manifest, for God has showed it to [men] ; 
for his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by [his] works from the creation of the world, both 
his eternal power and deity." What is clearly discovered 
is God's eternal power and deity, and these appear from 
his works, and are therefore doctrines of natural theology. 



CHAPTER XV. 161 

12. Natural theology was magnified and much studied 
and taught under Constantine the Great, 323-337 A. D., 
and Christianity triumphed over polytheism in the Roman 
empire, as a system of natural religion. After Constan- 
tine natural religion declined, and Christianity was taught 
chiefly as a religion of authority. In our times it is being 
revived, ^nd commanding increased respect. In the dark 
ages it was generally disparaged and neglected. 

13. Many important questions arise concerning the 
Jewish and Christian sacred books, and the incidents they 
relate ; but the great question of the ages is not whether 
Moses saw God in the burning bush at Horeb, or amid 
the fire and smoke of Sinai ; still less, whether Abraham re- 
ceived him into his tent, entertained him at his table, and 
accompanied him on his way when he left ; and whether 
Jacob wrestled with him and held him fast at Peniel, but 
whether we can perceive him. The every where present 
ought to be discoverable, and legitimate modes of search 
and inquiry ought to reach him. Human reason demands 
a God, and if he exists, ought to find him. ' Past ages 
have reported their observations and reasonings on the 
subject, but give us no testimonies which make inde- 
pendent and original inquiries unnecessary. We cannot 
know God from the stories of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. 
Can we know him at all ? Is he accessible ? Can wc 
approach his positions and find him in his place ? We 
can. He is always in his place, always approachable, and 
always at home, and responds to legitimate calls. But 
his place is not as a man among men, nor as an inferior 
creature among creatures either animate or inanimate. 
He is not a breath, flame, man, or other animal. He is 
without form, and belongs to the category of time and 
space as another infinite and absolute. 

14. Time is represented as an old man with a scythe 
mowing the world ; space is seldom personified. The 

14* 



162 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

conception of God as of the human form and size, bears 
about the same relation to reality as the representation of 
Time with his scythe. The finite cannot represent the 
infinite. Time, space, and the supreme cause are the 
three infinites, and the last an infinite being of intel- 
ligence and choice. It is the greatest and grandest of 
the three, and the last discovered ; it fills all space, and 
extends through all time. 

15. The first three Gospels find demons numerous and 
troublesome, and make Jesus expel them from epileptics 
and lunatics, some of whom they infested in great num- 
bers. The lunatic of the Gerasenes was relieved of 
a legion, who afterwards took possession of 2000 swine, 
from which they were again immediately driven by their 
voluntary destruction of themselves. Mark 5 : 13. 

16. The scribes from Jerusalem charge Jesus that he 
has Beelzeboul, and casts out demons by the prince of 
demons, Mark 3 : 21-30. The fourth Gospel makes the 
Jews consider him a demoniac, John 8 : 48. The New 
Testament demons are evil spirits, under Beelzeboul and 
Satan ; angels are good spirits, under Michael and the 
Supreme. No valid foundation appears for either. An- 
gels and demons are imaginary beings, belonging to the 
twilight and infancy of the human family, and both dis- 
appear as the mind is matured, and knowledge advances. 
Other worlds are discovered, some of which may be vastly 
older than ours, and their highest orders of creatures vastly 
superior to men ; but with these we have no commu- 
nication. 

17. The first Gospel has none of the leading doctrines 
of Augustine, Calvin, or Arminius, and supports none of 
the principal schools of mediaeval and modern Christen- 
dom. Its theology is not Calvinistic, Arminian, or 
Pauline. It has no trinity of divine persons, deity of 
Jesus, depravity of human nature, eternal torments of 



CHAPTER XY. 163 

the wicked, or infallible truth of the book itself or any 
sacred book. These and other related dogmas are of a 
later origin, and have no connection with Jesus or the 
first Gospel. 

18. Jesus receives neither prayers nor other . divine 
honors from his disciples, but prays like other men to the 
Supreme, and teaches men to pray to him. He repairs 
at times to mountain solitudes for devotional purposes, 
Mark 6 : 46, and in the second and third Gospels gives 
his disciples the formulas known as the Lord's prayers. 
John 16 : 26-28 makes him teach his disciples to pray to 
the father in his name ; nothing of the kind appears in 
the first three Gospels, showing that this usage did not 
belong to the earliest Christianity. It is a variation of 
the old Jewish error of asking favors for the sake of 
Abraham. Jesus teaches us to ask for favors on our own 
accounts, and not on his. 

19. Mark 12 : 18-27 discusses the resurrection, and sup- 
ports it against the Sadducees, as a future life without a 
reconstruction of human bodies. The ancient dead are 
described as already raised, and Moses is made to show 
this by reporting God as saying at the bush, Ex. 3 : 6, 
" I am the god of Abraham, and the god of Isaac, 
and the god of Jacob." From this Jesus is made to 
conclude, "God is not of the dead, but of the living." 
The conclusion has a slender basis, and the proof does not 
satisfy the demands of rational logic, but it shows both the 
faith of the earliest Christians, and what arguments they 
deemed suitable and conclusive for its support. 

20. Moses and Elijah appear, Mark 9 : 4, showing that 
they were still living. How early the resurrection was 
attained after death is not stated, but Jesus is made to 
anticipate his on the third day. Mark 10 : 34. This may 
be conformable to a theory that it was not attained in- 
stantly at death, but after a short interval. 



164 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

21. Gehenna is first introduced in this book, and has 
been understood to denote the Latin Tartarus. The 
word is a contraction of ge ben Hinnom, vale of the son 
of Hinnom, mentioned in Josh. 15 : 8, 2 Kings 23 : 10. 
This valley followed the brook Cedron. Previous to the 
Babylonian exile, it was the seat of Moloch, and a fire 
was kept constantly burning in it to consume infants 
sacrificed to that cruel deity. 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 
16 : 3 ; Jer. 17 : 31. Later writers make it signify a place 
in hades for the punishment of the wicked. Matt. 5 : 29, 
30, 10 : 28 ; Luke 12 : 5 ; James 5 : 6. Rev. 20 : 15 
supersedes it with a lake of fire. In this Gospel it 
denotes only Hinnom's vale, and its use elsewhere to 
denote a place in hades, may have arisen from a misunder- 
standing of it here. Its first introduction into the sacred 
books is in Mark 9 : 43-49, where going away and being 
cast into Gehenna are opposed to entering into life and into 
the kingdom of God. It has a worm that dies not, and 
a fire that is not extinguished. An undying worm is a 
succession of worms, and an unextinguished fire a fire 
continually kept up. The ancients kept up many such. 

Into this fire and to these worms, according to Mark 9 : 
43-50, the wicked were to be cast, instead of entering into 
the kingdom of God and into life. Both the life and 
death are shown to belong to this world, by the con- 
sideration that persons experience them, with their bodies 
entire or maimed. Human bodies have no admission to 
the spirit world. 

22. The Epistle to the Hebrews makes Jesus a chief 
priest, and mediaeval and modern theology adhere to this 
assumption. It rests on no valid evidence, and is in con- 
tradiction to all his reported teachings. His death is a 
martyrdom, and not a sacrifice. So far from propitiating 
a god of justice and love, it was the greatest conceivable 
offence and crime. God cannot be propitiated by crimes. 



CHAPTER XV. 165 

The first three Gospels make Jesus only a teacher, and 
assign him no priestly office. 

23. Mark 1 : 13 allows Jesus to be tried by the adver- 
sary in the wilderness 40 days, during which he is waited 
upon by angels and served ; the second Gospel makes 
him fast during that period. Evil spirits infested deserts, 
and it is quite conformable to the ideas of the ancients 
that Jesus should meet the adversary in a wilderness. 
The account requires to be interpreted according to the 
demonology and angelology of the times, as in other 
works. The common theories both of demons and angels 
require to be revised. The observations of the last 1800 
years have not confirmed the judgments of the ancients 
in respect to either. The angels and demons of the Jews 
and first Christians are destined to go the way of grave- 
yard ghosts, visitants of haunted houses, and other objects 
of superstition. We are every where confronted with 
God and terrestrial creatures, but superior intelligent 
beings hold themselves entirely aloof from us, and the 
spiritual powers of the air have vanished and disappeared 
with the progress of science and discovery. 

24. The theology of Jesus, according to this book, was 
not extensive, and might be comprehended under a few 
heads ; but whether he actually taught much or little, he 
evidently taught the main things which it concerns us to 
know, and put men on the track of investigation and in- 
quiry, which will not allow them to stop till they have 
learned all that is possible to be known. It does not 
locate God in heaven with the Jews, and as the Greeks 
did their celestial gods; and contains no doctrines of 
heaven or hades ; neither does it directly or indirectly 
assume the existence of an infernal world. Later dis- 
covery has shown that there is no place for an infernal 
world, and that the heavens are widely different from 
what was imagined by the ancients. 



166 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Appearances and teachings of Jesus after his death. Mark 16 : 8-20. 

1. History scrutinizes documents with jealous care, 
tradition modifies and enlarges them. It is extremely- 
difficult to make correct copies of works with a pen. 
Copyists make many unintentional changes, and sometimes 
intentional ones. We noticed in Chapter XII. a spurious 
account of Jesus in Josephus ; there are several spurious 
additions in the received text of the New Testament. 
The celebrated passage in 1 John 5 : 7, 8, concerning the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, is of this descrip- 
tion. It is undoubtedly spurious. This is also spurious. 
It is as follows : — 

2. " 8. They fled immediately. 9. And having risen in 
the first morning of the [week] he appeared first to Mary 
the Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 
10. She went and announced [his resurrection] to those 
who had been with him, [as they] were mourning and 
weeping. 11. And they, hearing that he lived and was 
beheld by her, believed not. 

" 12. And after this he was made manifest to two of 
them as they walked going to the country, in another 
form. 13. And they went away and announced [his resur- 
rection] to the rest. 

" 14. Afterwards he was made manifest to the same 
eleven as they reclined, and he blamed their unbelief and 
hardness of heart, because they believed not those that 
beheld him. 15. And he said to them, 'Go into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16. He 
that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that 
believes not shall be condemned. 17. And these signs 
shall follow those that believe : By my name shall they 
cast out demons, speak with new tongues, 18. take up 



CHAPTER XVI. 167 

serpents, and if they drink any poison it shall not hurt 
them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall 
be well. 

" 19. Then the Lord, after speaking with them, was taken 
up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. 20. And 
they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord co- 
working and confirming the word by signs following." 

3. The spurious character of this account appears from 
the following considerations : — 

I. It contradicts the statement of the young man 
clothed in white, 16 : 7, " Go tell his disciples and Peter, 
that he goes before you to Galilee ; there shall you see 
him, as he said to you." Galilee had been his home and 
the principal field of his labors. There is a general pre- 
sumption that the dead repair early to their homes wher- 
ever they may fall, and their ghosts have often been 
reported as early visitants of dear friends, and of familiar 
and loved scenes, immediately after death. According to 
this, Jesus was naturally looked for in Galilee, and not at 
Jerusalem. The fictitious character of these notions does 
not prove them spurious, but their inconsistency with 
16 : 7 does. The author might introduce fictitious ap- 
pearances, but he would be likely to be consistent with 
himself. II. The addition makes Jesus to have expelled 
seven demons from Mary the Magdalene. This case is 
next in interest to that of the legion who were expelled 
from the lunatic of the Gerasenes, and should have been 
described in its place, if known to the author. The in- 
cidental way in which it is mentioned implies that it was 
previously known. III. It proposes the doings of Chris- 
tians as signs. According to the book, Jesus refused to 
give signs. Mark 8 : 11, 12, "And the Pharisees went out 
and began to dispute with him, demanding a sign from 
heaven, to try him ; and groaning in his spirit, he says, 
Why does this generation seek a sign ? Truly I tell you, 



168 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

No sign shall be given to this generation." This may be 
taken as indicating the absence of all pretension to 
miracles by Jesus, and agrees with the assumption that 
the miracles ascribed to him are either exaggerations of 
doings which were not supernatural, or else pure fictions. 

IV. It calls Jesus the Lord twice. He is never so called 
in the book, after the title; and the title Lord in the 
introduction and in this narrative indicates a new hand. 

V. It makes baptism a Christian ordinance. This con- 
tradicts the book, and is conformable to a different school 
and theory of Christianity from that which the book pro- 
poses. VI. It is wanting in the Vatican and Mount 
Sinai manuscripts, the two oldest in existence. VII. It 
is omitted in the oldest scholia and commentaries. 
VIII. It is without the divisions of Ammonius and 
Eusebius, showing that it was not in the Gospels of their 
times. IX. It is abandoned by Tischendorf, Alford, and 
other most eminent modern recensionists and commen- 
tators. X. The style of the addition differs entirely from 
that of the book, and cannot be by the same hand. 

The genuine Gospel according to Mark reports only 
the germ of the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus' 
body. In the books that follow, it is improved with many 
additions, and its development is the natural growth of 
superstition. 

4. The supposed bodily resurrection of Jesus greatly 
embarrasses Christianity. It is unsupported by authentic 
testimony, and cannot be true. The first Gospel knows 
nothing of it, and if it did, would only teach it as a fiction. 
The announcement of the young man clothed in white 
at the tomb, is mysterious, but implies nothing more than 
is often reported in tales of the appearance of ghosts in 
places of their familiar resort. Whether true or not, 
such cases are confidently reported and fully believed by 
many, and some are supposed to have powers of vision in 



chapter xvn. 169 

respect to objects of this kind, not possessed by others. 
If souls were deemed competent to return after death to 
the places of their familiar resort, this young man might 
with that faith have assured the good women at the tomb, 
that Jesus would precede them in his return to Galilee. 

5. This may have referred to the soul of Jesus. So 
loved- by his friends and so loving, why should not the 
founder of Christianity be allowed the largest liberty 
enjoyed by mortals, and revisit the dear familiar scenes of 
his life ? The young man's declaration, He shall go before 
you to Galilee, implies nothing supernatural. Spirits are 
supposed to reach their loved retreats from great distances, 
with more than the speed of light. The mention of flesh 
and bones belongs to a later account, which is both fic- 
titious and unauthentic. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Church of Jesus. 

1. The church of Jesus was his school, and was col- 
lected under him as its master. It corresponded to the 
schools of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among the 
Greeks, and the earliest Christians bore the same relations 
to Jesus that the Platonists and Aristotelians did to Plato 
and Aristotle. The school of Jesus differed from modern 
schools of science and art. These extend through terms 
of months and years, and have limited courses of study 
and instruction. The school of Jesus invited permanent 
connections, and proposed indefinite pursuits of knowl- 
edge, piety, and virtue. 

2. The Greek name for church is ecclesia, assembly or 
congregation. The word is not found in the first Gospel, 
nor in the third and fourth. It occurs in Matt. 16 : 18, 
" On this rock will I build my assembly, and the gates of 

15 



170 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

hades shall not prevail against it," and in 18 : 17, "Tell 
of [an offender] to the assembly, and if he obey not the 
assembly, treat him as a gentile and publican ." In Acts 
2 : 47, it is said, "And the Lord adds the saved daily to 
the assembly." In all these places the word means the 
Christian body, the body of the disciples of Jesus, or the 
members of his school. 

3. The English word church, Scotch kirk, is derived 
from the Greek Kurios, Lord, through the adjective 
kuriakos, Lord's [house], and signifies, 1. A house of pub- 
lic religious worship ; 2. A religious corporation, meeting 
statedly in the same house ; 3. A religious denomination 
or sect. The school of Jesus is the root from which all 
the churches of Christendom have proceeded. The re- 
ligion of Jesus is independent of churches, but demands 
them as helps for religious and moral culture. In this 
respect it is analogous to the sciences and arts. The 
church of Jesus was a corporation, and united his dis- 
ciples, and those who embraced his religion, in a religious 
body for their mutual aid and cooperation in serving 
themselves and others. It also organized them as a 
divine kingdom and family, with God for their supreme 
sovereign and father. The school of Jesus was the king- 
dom and family of God. It had not Peter nor Jesus for 
its head, but the Supreme. 

4. The church of Jesus was a voluntary society, but 
membership was permanent and hereditary, except where 
persons chose to abandon the corporation, or conducted 
themselves in such a manner that the body thought 
proper to exclude them from it. 

5. It does not appear that Jesus instituted local churches, 
or subjected his followers to any local governments. We 
hear of no church of Capernaum, or Bethsaida, nor of any 
local church, till after the crucifixion ; then in Acts we have 
directly the church at Jerusalem, and subsequently those 



CHAPTER XVII. 171 

at Antioch and other cities. Jesus did not institute 
church officers. He instituted apostles as general re- 
ligious teachers, to collect schools and instruct them ; all 
church officers are of later origin. Jesus founded his 
religion, and his religion produced churches ; Jesus taught 
his religion and called men to embrace it, and those who 
embraced it united in religious bodies called assemblies 
[churches], and instituted weekly religious worship and 
instruction. Churches are a necessity for the mainte- 
nance of weekly religious worship and instruction. Men 
must concur and come under bonds to each other to per- 
form specific acts and duties, in order to accomplish this 
object; and still more, in order to do it to the best 
advantage. 

6. We have churches of many different kinds. I. The 
Episcopal church is organized under bishops and priests ; 
II. The Presbyterian under ministers and elders ; III. The 
Congregational has all the powers of church sovereignty 
invested in the congregation. The question between 
these denominations is simply a question of expediency, 
not of authority. We have no explicit instructions of 
Jesus nor supernatural laws of God on the subject. That 
which is best ought to be adopted, and the less useful 
abandoned. That which is best will ultimately appear 
to be best, and supersede all others. 

Considered as schools of religion, churches require pro- 
fessional teachers. Jesus and his apostles were profes- 
sional teachers, and were succeeded by presbyters and 
bishops who were also such. Churches began with con- 
gregations under presbyters and bishops, and finally 
formed provincial and national churches under patriarchs 
in the east, and a Catholic imperial church under the 
pope of Rome in the west. 

7. The Catholic church aims to be universal, and to 
bring all men to unite in it. The Greek and other eastern 



172 CRITICAL INTRODUCTION. 

churches embrace the entire nationalities to which they 
belong, which, however, with the exception of the 
Greek nation, are fragmentary. The patriarchal churches 
in the east, and the papal church in the west, were the 
growth of several centuries, before they reached their 
maturity. Not proving satisfactory, some of the German 
Christians, led by Luther and others, seceded from the 
Papal church, and founded Protestant churches ; and the 
English under Henry VIII. seceded at about the same 
time, and founded the church of England. 

The earliest Protestant churches not proving satisfac- 
tory to all, another secession followed, and resulted in 
the formation of Congregational churches; and other seces- 
sions have taken place from them, making several orders 
of Congregationalists. 

8. The church of England is an institution of the state, 
and under its supreme control. The Protestant churches 
of Germany are also state institutions, and are regulated 
on the same principles as public schools. In the United 
States all churches are independent corporations, under 
the state, subject to restrictions, like other corporations, 
but with full authority to administer their affairs accord- 
ing to their wishes. 

9. It is questionable whether the final church is yet 
reached. Protestants imagine that they have made im- 
portant improvements on the system of the Catholics, 
which can never be abandoned ; and Congregationalists 
claim to have made important improvements on the sys- 
tem of other Protestants ; but there are some defects in 
Congregationalism that require to be supplied before that 
system can suffice for the world, and serve as the grand 
instrument of all religious and moral culture. It requires 
to be nationalized, and perhaps Catholicized. We now 
have independent Congregationalism ; we may modify 
this, and form state, national, and universal representative 



CHAPTER XVII. 173 

churches, but in our present form we are not likely to 
supersede all the older organizations. Congregationalism 
had a vigorous youth, but its manhood does not yet fulfil 
the promise of its earliest years. The religion of Jesus 
embraces science and art. Both are progressive. Sci- 
ences and arts never stop, and cannot stop short of 
perfection. Perfection is slowly reached, and is gained 
only in points, an infinite number of which are necessary 
to make the shortest line or smallest surface. 
15* 



NOTE TO THE READER. 



Immense labors have been performed on the text and inter- 
pretation of the Gospels, and they are explained and commented 
upon in numerous learned and able works, many of which are 
extensively circulated. Henry,' Scott, Clarke, Home, Bloomfield, 
and Alford in England ; Hosenmuller, Kuinoel, DeWette, and 
Olshausen in Germany ; Barnes and Alexander in America and 
many others, in these and other countries, are prominent inter- 
preters of these books, and some of them exert great influence on 
the public mind. Their works have great merits and great defects. 
Some great defects are common to most of them. 

Those generally received assume the authenticity, perfect cor- 
rectness, and perfect historic character of the Gospels, and make 
these assumptions rules of interpretation, by which the ordinary 
tests and evidences of truth are entirely superseded and set aside. 
No good reason appears for this, and its effect is to render correct 
interpretation, in many cases, impossible. The result of incorrect 
methods is incorrect, unsettled and discordant conclusions. 

The character of the books as historic, or in part poetic and 
fictitious, must be determined correctly, in order to a correct deter- 
mination of other important questions. The same is true of their 
chronologic order and mutual relations. The author applies his 
method to the Gospel according to Mark, and exhibits some of the 
principal results which he has reached, in the hope that they will 
be found satisfactory, and ultimately command universal assent. 
Opinions are unstable and changing as well as often contradictory; 
knowledge is firm and enduring, and is the final victor of all 
fields. 

Amid the shock of arms, and during the settlement of great 
national questions of justice and expediency, the higher questions 
of religion ought not entirely to sleep. They do not sleep. New 
light is beaming on the mountains, and the bow of promise gilds 
the clouds of war and the smoke of battle. The voice of God 
mingles in the din of conflict, and rises above it, calling his erring 

074) 



NOTE TO THE READER. 175 

children to better views and higher aims. Superstition trembles 
on her ebon throne, and her night, pestilence and famine-smitten, 
gives place to the glad morning of a happy day. Determined and 
fearless inquiry is conformable to the spirit of the times. 

Religious science ought not to languish and be feeble when all 
other sciences are healthful and vigorous. Christianity can only 
lead the world, and become universal and permanent, by abandon- 
ing all false assumptions, and perfecting its doctrines and methods 
so as to meet the universal and permanent demands of human 
nature. God is the patron of love and truth, never of malice and 
delusion. 

De Wette abandons many common errors, and discusses the 
character and interpretation of these books with the freedom of 
true science. Several other eminent German and English critics 
do the same. Kenan's Life of Jesus accepts and recognizes the 
principal results of German rationalistic criticism, and is highly 
poetic and suggestive, but sheds little new light on biblical in- 
quiries. Colenso has not extended his method to the Gospels, 
and seems not to be aware as yet of results to which it will 
infallibly conduct him. 

One effect of the author's methods will be to add greatly to the 
interest and usefulness of Bible reading and study, and give new 
impulses to a broad, liberal, bold, and manly culture of the mind 
and heart. Its piety will not be feeble and sickly, timid and 
cowardly, nor proud, dogmatic, or overbearing. 




H> X 178 







'» ^ **^lrV -K* , G 

■ . ^ . , •. ^ O . „ a "V 

-e\ **7VV* <G v ^> 'o..* A <* *<T< S 4 ,G V 









'oK 




^0 X 



*v 
















*4 



0' 








f o 



-. <$> *n^M?k«- *+ M A 



*bV 




^0^ 



4 o^ 









v 



A> -J 

^ C Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 



,^ ^ 



Treatment Date: June 2005 



J? ^o PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 







: -«?v ,* 



tf> u ^ 



« 5 




0' 






31^ i ^ ^ 













^ « 













n$ . t ' • . 




^' 







